A local magnitude scale ML for the Saurashtra horst: An active intraplate region, Gujarat, India

Abstract

The calibration of local magnitude scale to local tectonics is essential for seismic hazard assessment and quantifying the seismicity in active regions. In the present study, we have developed a local magnitude scale ML, for the Saurashtra region, which is a horst, located in the western continental margin of India. The local magnitude scale is developed using 1968 amplitude measurements from horizontal component recordings of 319 earthquakes, obtained from sites in the Saurashtra region, with hypocentral distances ranging from 3 to 298 km. All the 1968 amplitude measurements were inverted simultaneously to determine attenuation curve, magnitudes and station corrections for the studied region. The resultant distance correction term for the Saurashtra is −log(A0) = 1.31 log(r/100) + 0.0002 (r − 100) + 3 for 100 km normalization, where A0 is the distance correction and r is the hypocentral distance. The distance correction term (−log A0) suggests that the attenuation in the Saurashtra region is lower as compared to neighbouring Kachchh region. The station corrections obtained in the present study varies from −0.31 to +0.24. Overall, standard deviation of the magnitude residuals without station correction is 0.28, while with station correction, it is 0.23, which indicates that applying station correction reduces the variance by 31% and brings the average residual closer to zero.