Parameters of Higuchi's method to characterize primary waves in some seismograms from the Mexican subduction zone

Higuchi's method is a procedure that, if applied appropriately, can determine in a reliable way the fractal dimension D of time series; this fractal dimension permits to characterize the degree of correlation of the series. However, when analyzing some time series with Higuchi's method, there are oscillations at the right-hand side of the graph, which can cause a mistaken determination of the fractal dimension. In this work, an appropriate explanation is given to this type of behaviour. Using the seismogram as a time series and the properties of the P and S waves, it is possible to use the properties of Higuchi's method to previously detect the arrival of the earthquake shacking stage, some seconds in advance, approximately 30-35 s in the case of Mexico City. Thus, we propose the Higuchi's method to characterize and detect the P waves in order to estimate the strength of the forthcoming S waves.