Earthquake magnitude prediction by adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based on fuzzy C-means algorithm

This paper investigates the prediction of future earthquakes that would occur with magnitude 5.5 or greater using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). For this purpose, the earthquake data between 1950 and 2013 that had been recorded in the region with 2°E longitude and 4°N latitude in Iran has been used. Thereupon, three algorithms including grid partition (GP), subtractive clustering (SC) and fuzzy C-means (FCM) were used to develop models with the structure of ANFIS. Since the earthquake data for the specified region had been reported on different magnitude scales, suitable relationships were determined to convert the magnitude scales into moment magnitude and all records uniformed based on the relationships. The uniform data were used to calculate seismicity indicators, and ANFIS was developed based on considered algorithms. The results showed that ANFIS-FCM with a high accuracy was able to predict earthquake magnitude. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014