Modeling of source parameters of the 15 December 2015 Deogarh earthquake of Mw 4.0

Abstract

We herein present source parameters and focal mechanism of a rare cratonic upper crustal earthquake of M w 4.0, which occurred at 8 km depth (centroid depth) below a region near Deogarh, Jharkhand. For our study, we used broadband waveform data from a seismic network of 15 three-component seismographs in the eastern Indian craton. The average seismic moment, moment magnitude and source radius are estimated to be 1.1 x 10 15 N-m, 4.0 and 180.6 m, respectively. The high average stress drop of 14.27 MPa could be attributed to its lower-crustal origin. The mean corner frequency is calculated to be 4.1 Hz. To study the source mechanism, we perform a deviatoric constrained full waveform moment tensor inversion of multiple point sources on the bandpassed (0.06 - 0.14 Hz) broadband displacement data of the Deogarh event, using ISOLA software. The best fit is obtained for the source at 8 km centroid depth, with a moment magnitude 3.7, and a right-lateral strike-slip mechanism with strike 162°, dip 72° and rake 169°. The P-axis orients N24°E, which is parallel to the direction of the absolute plate motion direction of Indian plate, while T-axis orients E-W, which is parallel to the strike of the pre-existing Damodar Graben (DG) of Gondwana age. The occurrence of this earthquake is attributed to the neotectonic reactivation of a fault associated with the E-W trending DG shear zone.