The region of West Bohemia/Vogtland in the Czech–German border area is well known for the repeated occurrence of earthquake swarms, CO2 emanations and mofette fields. To deepen the understanding of these phenomena local earthquake tomography of the Vp and Vp/Vs structure and attenuation tomography are carried out in this study. In comparison with previous investigations the travel time tomography revealed more details of the near-surface geology, potential fluid pathways and features around and below the swarm focal zone. In the uppermost crust, for the first time the Cheb basin and the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields were imaged as distinct anomalies of Vp and Vp/Vs. The well-pronounced low-Vp anomaly of the Cheb basin is not continuing into the Eger rift indicating a particular role of the basin within the rift system. A steep channel of increased Vp/Vs is interpreted as the pathway for fluids ascending from the earthquake swarm focal zone up to the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields. As a new feature, a mid-crustal body of high Vp and increased Vp/Vs is revealed just below and north of the earthquake swarm focal zone. It may represent a solidified intrusive body which emplaced prior or during the formation of the rift system. The enhanced fluid flow into the focal zone and triggering of earthquakes could be driven by the presence of the intrusive body if cooling is not fully completed. The assumed intrusive structure is considered as a heterogeneity leading to higher stress particularly at the junction of the rift system with the basin and prominent fault structures. This may additionally contribute to the triggering of earthquakes. The three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave attenuation (Qp) model for West Bohemia is the first of its kind. Path-averaged attenuation t * is calculated from amplitude spectra of time windows around the P-wave arrivals of local earthquakes. Average value or Qp for stations close to Nový Kostel are very low (< 150) compared to that of stations located further away from the focal zone (increases up to 500 within 80 km distance). The SIMUL2000 tomography scheme is used to invert the t * for P-wave attenuation perturbation. Analysis of resolution shows that the model is wellresolved in the vicinity of earthquake swarm hypocenters. The prominent features of the model are located around Nový Kostel focal zone and its northern vicinity. Beneath Nový Kostel a vertically stretched (down to depth of 11 km) and a highly attenuating body is observed. This might be due to fracturing and high density of cracks inside the weak earthquake swarm zone in conjunction with presence of free gas/fluid. Further north of Nový Kostel two high attenuating body are located at depths between 2 to 8 km which can represents trapped laterally distributed fluids. The eastern anomaly shows a good correlation with the fluid accumulation area which was suggested in 9HR seismic profile.

The region of West Bohemia/Vogtland in the Czech–German border area is well known for the repeated occurrence of earthquake swarms, CO2 emanations and mofette fields. To deepen the understanding of these phenomena local earthquake tomography of the Vp and Vp/Vs structure and attenuation tomography are carried out in this study. In comparison with previous investigations the travel time tomography revealed more details of the near-surface geology, potential fluid pathways and features around and below the swarm focal zone. In the uppermost crust, for the first time the Cheb basin and the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields were imaged as distinct anomalies of Vp and Vp/Vs. The well-pronounced low-Vp anomaly of the Cheb basin is not continuing into the Eger rift indicating a particular role of the basin within the rift system. A steep channel of increased Vp/Vs is interpreted as the pathway for fluids ascending from the earthquake swarm focal zone up to the Bublák/Hartoušov mofette fields. As a new feature, a mid-crustal body of high Vp and increased Vp/Vs is revealed just below and north of the earthquake swarm focal zone. It may represent a solidified intrusive body which emplaced prior or during the formation of the rift system. The enhanced fluid flow into the focal zone and triggering of earthquakes could be driven by the presence of the intrusive body if cooling is not fully completed. The assumed intrusive structure is considered as a heterogeneity leading to higher stress particularly at the junction of the rift system with the basin and prominent fault structures. This may additionally contribute to the triggering of earthquakes. The three-dimensional (3-D) P-wave attenuation (Qp) model for West Bohemia is the first of its kind. Path-averaged attenuation t * is calculated from amplitude spectra of time windows around the P-wave arrivals of local earthquakes. Average value or Qp for stations close to Nový Kostel are very low (< 150) compared to that of stations located further away from the focal zone (increases up to 500 within 80 km distance). The SIMUL2000 tomography scheme is used to invert the t * for P-wave attenuation perturbation. Analysis of resolution shows that the model is wellresolved in the vicinity of earthquake swarm hypocenters. The prominent features of the model are located around Nový Kostel focal zone and its northern vicinity. Beneath Nový Kostel a vertically stretched (down to depth of 11 km) and a highly attenuating body is observed. This might be due to fracturing and high density of cracks inside the weak earthquake swarm zone in conjunction with presence of free gas/fluid. Further north of Nový Kostel two high attenuating body are located at depths between 2 to 8 km which can represents trapped laterally distributed fluids. The eastern anomaly shows a good correlation with the fluid accumulation area which was suggested in 9HR seismic profile.

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The main goal of this thesis is to analyze the statistical properties of seismic catalogues of natural and induced seismicity, identify similarities and differences. We compare statistical temporal and magnitude information contained in different types of earthquake catalogues. Six seismostatistical criteria used for identification of natural swarms and mainshock- aftershock earthquake sequences are applied to 10 different catalogues of natural and induced seismicity. We did not find a method to reliably distinguish between natural and induced seismicity based only on temporal and magnitude information contained in catalogues. We show that induced seismicity catalogues are similar to natural earthquake swarms. We report how the set of 6 criteria presented here can be used for distinguishing between mainshock-aftershock sequences and swarm seismicity. We also show that none of the tested criteria can be used independently for distinguishing between different types of seismicity.

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In my doctoral thesis I have investigated earthquake swarms from two com- pletely different tectonic areas, West Bohemia/Vogtland and Southwest Iceland, with the aim of gaining a deeper insight into the nature of earthquake swarms in diverse tectonic environments. I analysed swarm-like activities from West Bo- hemia and Southwest Iceland from the perspective of statistical characteristics (magnitude-frequency distribution, interevent time distribution), seismic moment release, and space-time distribution of events. I found that the ratio of small to large events and the event rates are similar for all the activities in both areas, while the rate of the seismic moment release is significantly higher for the South- west Icelandic swarms. Seismic moment released step by step is characterised for the West Bohemia swarms, whereas seismic moment released in one dominant short-term phase is typical of Southwest Icelandic earthquake swarms. All the West Bohemian swarms took place in a bounded focal zone Nový Kostel that is fairly complex, consisting of several fault segments. The Southwest Icelandic swarms are distributed at much larger area along the Mid Atlantic Ridge up to its branching in the Hengill triple junction, the individual swarms clearly reflect a tectonic structure of respective focal areas. I have...