Modeling of source parameters and moment tensors of local earthquakes occurring in the eastern Indian shield

Abstract

Earthquake source parameters and crustal Q are being estimated simultaneously through the inversion of S-wave displacement spectra from three-component recordings of ten local cratonic intraplate earthquakes from 3-6 broadband stations in the eastern Indian shield, wherein, an iterative Levenberg-Marquardt inversion technique is used. The estimated seismic moment (Mo) and source radii (r) vary from 7.4 x 1012 to 7.1 x 1014 N-m and 144.2 to 211.3 m, respectively, while estimated stress drops (Δσ) and multiplicative factor (Emo) values range from 0.11 to 4.13 MPa and 1.33 to 2.16, respectively. The corner frequencies range from 6.23 to 8.62 Hz while moment magnitudes vary from 2.44 to 3.57. The radiated seismic energy and apparent stresses range from 8.3 x 106 to 2.0 x 1010 Joules and 0.06 to 0.94 MPa, respectively, wherein the estimated corner frequencies and seismic moment satisfy the relation Mo ∞ f c –(3+e) for e = 12.7. Thus, the source scaling of these events clearly deviates from the self-similarity i.e. f–3. Estimated Zuniga parameters reveal that all selected events satisfy the partial stress drop model, which is in good agreement with the global observations. Our estimated crustal S-wave quality factors vary from 1091 to 4926 with an average of 3006, suggesting a less heterogeneous crustal structure underlying the study region.We also perform moment tensor inversion of five selected local events using ISOLA software, which reveals that the dominant deformation mode for the eastern Indian shield is left-lateral strike slip motion with minor normal dip-slip component on an almost vertical plane. This observation suggests that neotectonic vertical movements might have played a key role in generating these earthquakes. Our modeling also depicts that the seismically mildly active Singhbhum shear zone and Eastern Ghats mobile belt are characterized by the left-lateral strike motion while two events in the Chotanagpur half graben belt suggest a normal dip-slip motion along a south dipping plane. A north-south orientation of P-axis is found to be dominant in the area, which is consistent with the prevailing north–south compression over the Indian plate.