Moment tensors, state of stress and their relation to faulting processes in Gujarat, Western India

Publication date: Available online 3 February 2016 Source:Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C Author(s): Sandeep Kumar Aggarwal, Prosanta Kumar Khan, Sarada Prasad Mohanty, Zafeiria Roumelioti Time domain moment tensor analysis of 145 earthquakes (Mw 3.2 to 5.1), occurring during the period 2006-2014 in Gujarat region, has been performed. The events are mainly confined in the Kachchh area demarcated by the Island belt and Kachchh Mainland faults to its north and south, and two transverse faults to its east and west. Libraries of Green’s functions were established using the 1D velocity model of Kachchh, Saurashtra and Mainland Gujarat. Green’s functions and broadband displacement waveforms filtered at low frequency (0.5 - 0.8 Hz) were inverted to determine the moment tensor solutions. The estimated solutions were rigorously tested through number of iterations at different source depths for finding reliable source locations. The identified heterogeneous nature of the stress fields in the Kachchh area allowed us to divide this into four Zones 1-4. The stress inversion results indicate that the Zone 1 is dominated with radial compression, Zone 2 with strike-slip compression, and Zones 3 and 4 with strike-slip extensions. The analysis further shows that the epicentral region of 2001 MW 7.7 Bhuj mainshock, located at the junction of Zones 2, 3 and 4, was associated with predominant compressional stress and strike-slip motion along ∼NNE-SSW striking fa...
Source: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts ABC - Category: Science Source Type: research