ESTIMATION OF THE COMPOUNDING DISTRIBUTION IN THE COMPOUND POISSON-PROCESS MODEL FOR EARTHQUAKES

Compound Poisson process models have been studied earlier for earthquake occurrences, with some arbitrary compounding distributions. It is more meaningful to abstract information about the compounding distribution from the empirical observations on the earthquake sequences. The definition of a compound distribution can be interpreted as an integral transform of the compounding distribution. The latter distribution can therefore be estimated by inverting the integral transform, Alternatively, from the moments of the observable random variables viz. (a) the number of earthquakes per unit time or (b) the waiting times for subsequent earthquakes, the moments of the compounding distribution can be obtained. This information can be converted into a statement about the compounding distribution.