The 1986 Dharamsala earthquake of Himachal Himalaya – estimates of source parameters, average intrinsic attenuation and site amplification functions

Abstract

The 26th April 1986 Dharamsala earthquake (mb 5.5) occurred in the Kangra region of Himachal Himalaya, which lies in the rupture zone of great Kangra earthquake of 1905. This was the first moderate sized earthquake to be recorded at a few sites of the strong ground motion array in the NW Himalaya. The accelerograms of this earthquake have been used to estimate its source parameters, site amplification functions and to estimate the effective shear wave attenuation factor Qβ in the frontal region of Himachal Himalaya. A double couple fault plane solution for the earthquake has been obtained based on the spectra of the transverse component of the accelerograms. The estimated values of the source parameters are seismic moment: 2.1×1024 dyne-cm, static stress drop (Δσ): 36 bars, source radius (r): 2.8 km and moment magnitude (Mw): 5.4. The estimated average values of effective shear wave attenuation factor Qβ for various sites are in the range of 125 to 300 with an overall spatial average of 239. The influence of local site effects on the observed PGA values have been examined on the basis of site amplification functions.