Global Low Dimensional Seismic Chaos in the Hellenic Region

In this study, we present results concerning seismogenesis in the Hellenic region (land and sea of Greece), applying nonlinear analysis to an earthquake time series. The model of the dripping faucet is used as a physical interpretation of the seismic process and the construction of inter-event seismic time series. Geometrical and dynamical characteristics estimated in the reconstructed state space support the low dimensional, chaotic character of the global seismic process in the Hellenic region. The method of stochastic surrogate data was employed to the exclusion of “pseudo chaos” caused by the nonlinear distortion of a purely stochastic process. These results are in agreement with general theoretical models concerning distributed driven threshold dynamics applied to the case of seismic processes. Moreover, the observed global character of low dimensionality and chaoticity over such a complex system of faults supports the hypothesis that seismogenesis is characterized by spatiotemporal intermittent chaos throughout the Hellenic region.