Advanced Visualization of Seismic Activity in the Vértes Mountain Region Post-M4.5 Mainshock

In 2011, seismic activity in the Vértes Mountains experienced a significant increase. On January 29, 2011, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter scale struck the western side of the Vértes Mountains, with its epicentre near Oroszlány, This mainshock caused damage to buildings in Komárom-Esztergom County and was felt as far away as Budapest. The primary objectives of this study are to visualise and analyse the spatio-temporal distribution of aftershocks and to address the “mining blast separation problem.” Both natural and artificial seismic events have been observed in the Vértes Mountains. Approximately 400 aftershocks, with magnitudes ranging from −0.5 to 2, were detected throughout 2011. This event holds significant importance in Hungarian seismology, as it marks the first instance of instrumentally detecting a substantial number of aftershocks. The proximity of some stations to the epicentres (5–10 km) allowed for recording numerous microearthquakes with magnitudes less than 1.0. The diurnal distribution of these small events displayed periodicity, with a higher frequency of occurrences at night. The spatial distribution of these earthquakes provides valuable insights into the active faults within the Vértes Mountains. The inclusion of blasts in the seismic catalogue slightly altered the parameters of the cumulative frequency-magnitude relation (Gutenberg-Richter law) and Omori's law, which describes the empirical relation for the temporal decay of aftershock rates. The map of blasts highlights issues arising from the unfavourable configuration of seismic stations in this region