This special issue emerged following the 2013 8th International Statistical Seismology (StatSei8) workshop in Beijing. The articles within have been collected to report on exciting new research in statistical seismology methods and applications; it contains a collection of the newest methods, techniques and results related to statistical analysis of earthquake occurrence and earthquake probability forecasting. The articles within ultimately help to define future research directions in the field. Especially, the rapid development of observation technologies has brought geophysical research into the big-data era. This includes not only non-seismicity geophysical data, such as GPS observation on surface displacement, InSAR observation of the co-seismic deformation, ionospheric observations, etc., but also extended seismological data including slow earthquakes, tremor, and VLF earthquakes.

The subject of statistical seismology bridges the gap between physical and statistical models. Many significant achievements have been accomplished during the last several decades, including formulation of conditional intensity models for quantifying seismicity rates, earthquake probability forecasts, and theories related to rigorous testing of forecast models.

forefront of statistical seismology developments in statistical integration of diverse geophysical data sets Optimized models that bring together recent hypotheses in statistics and earthquake physics

Inhalt

Introduction.- Cumulative Coulomb stress triggering as an explanation for the Canterbury (New Zealand) aftershock sequence: Initial conditions are everything?.- A variety of aftershock decay in the rate- and state-friction model due to the effect of secondary aftershocks: Implications from real aftershock sequences.-Tempo-spatial impact of the 2011 M9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake on Eastern China.- Evaluation of Coulomb Stress Changes from Earthquake Productivity Variations in Western Corinth Gulf, Greece.- Signature of fault healing in an aftershock sequence? The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.- The spatial and temporal variation of the b-value in Southwest China.- A revised earthquake catalogue for South Iceland.- The spatial scale of detected seismicity.- Visibility graph analysis of 2003-2012 earthquake sequence in Kachchh region, Western India.-Analysis of foreshock sequences in California and implications for earthquake triggering.- Quantitativeanalysis of seismicity before Large Taiwanese Earthquakes Using G-R Law.- Statistical significance of the minimum of the order parameter fluctuations of seismicity before major earthquakes in Japan.- An Explosion Aftershock Model with Application to On-Site Inspection.- Conditional probabilities for Large Events Estimated by Small Earthquake Rate.- A Bayesian Assessment of Seismic Semi-periodicity Forecasts.- The Determination of Earthquake Hazard Parameters Deduced from Bayesian Approach for Different Seismic Source Regions of Western Anatolia.- Development of a combination approach for seismic hazard evaluation.- A Strategy for a routine Pattern Informatics Operation Applied to Taiwan.- The central China North-South Seismic Belt: Seismicity, Ergodicity, and Five-year PI Forecast in Testing.- Characteristics of seismoelectric wave fields associated with natural microcracks.- Shifting correlation between earthquakes and electromagneticsignals: a case study of the 2013 Minxian-Zhangxian ML6.5 (MW6.1) earthquake in Gansu, China.- Long term RST analysis of anomalous TIR sequences in relation with earthquakes occurred in Greece in the period 2004-2013.- Statistical evaluation of efficiency and possibility of earthquake predictions with gravity field variation and its analytic signal in western China.