A comprehensive spatiotemporal evaluation of the current earthquake activity in different parts of the Frakull-Durrës fault zone, Albania

This study presents a detailed spatiotemporal analysis for the Frakull-Durrës (F-D) fault zone at the beginning of 2020. For this purpose, the most frequently used statistical seismicity parameters such as magnitude completeness, Mc-value, Gutenberg-Richter b-value, recurrence times, annual probabilities and standard normal deviate, Z-value, were mapped. The F-D fault zone was divided into two seismogenic subregions, and Mc-value was taken as 2.5 for both the south and north parts. The b-value was estimated as 0.83 ± 0.06 for the south part and 0.85 ± 0.06 for the north part. b-values for both zones are smaller than 1.0 and these values may be considered to be a larger stress accumulation to build up over time and to be released by the next possible earthquakes. Clear decreasing trends were observed in time variations of b-values before the occurrences of several strong main shocks. Analyses of annual probabilities and recurrence times suggest that the study region has an intermediate/long-term earthquake hazard in comparison to occurrences of strong/destructive earthquakes in the short term. Some anomaly regions of a small b-value and a large Z-value were found along the F-D fault zone at the beginning of 2020: i) among Lushnje-Tirana-Durrës including the middle part of the F-D fault zone, ii) in and around Lezha including the north end of the F-D fault zone. Thus, the combination of regions with the lowest b-value and largest Z-value may supply preliminary results for earthquake hazard, and these regions may be considered to be the most likely regions for future strong/large earthquakes in the F-D fault zone.