Seismicity of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Earthquakes are a conspicuous manifestation of active processes in and around the Iberian Peninsula, providing evidence for active faulting at the plate boundary zone, as well as across large intraplate areas. An extensive sample of faulting from many individual structures is provided through the earthquakes that appear in the geological, historical and instrumental records. Modern seismic broadband networks allow for estimating earthquake source parameters routinely. The distribution of hypocenters locates the zones of principal stress release, and focal mechanism depict the variety of different tectonic regimes over the region. Older earthquakes have been studied from paleoseismology, macroseismic information or analogue recordings, improving our understanding of long-term characteristics.