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Crustal Heterogeneity and Seismotectonics of the National Capital Region, Delhi, India

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Abstract

To better understand the relationship between crustal heterogeneity and seismotectonics in the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi, India, we carried out local P- and S-velocity tomography beneath the NCR. First arrival times of the first P- and S-wave from 275 crustal earthquakes recorded by the Seismic Telemetry Network in and around Delhi of the India Meteorological Department, India, are inverted to obtain crustal P-, S-velocity and V P /V S variations in the region. Our tomographic images of the upper crust reflect well the surface geological and tectonic features. The Delhi fold belt is identified as low V P, high V S and low V P/V S. The Sohna hot spring region is appearing as low V P, low V S and high V P /V S correlating with the possible presence of fluid-filled rocks. The crustal seismicity is distributed in both the high- and low-velocity zones, but most distinctly in the low V P /V S region.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Prof. D. Zhao for providing his tomography code used in this study. The figures are made by GMT (Wessel and Smith, 1998). We are thankful to the reviewers and Editor for their valuable comments which improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR), Hyderabad, 500007, India

    Sandeep Gupta

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India

    William K. Mohanty

  3. Earthquake Risk Evaluation Center, India Meteorological Department, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, India

    Rajesh Prakash & Atindra Kumar Shukla

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  1. Sandeep Gupta
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  2. William K. Mohanty
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Correspondence to William K. Mohanty.

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Gupta, S., Mohanty, W.K., Prakash, R. et al. Crustal Heterogeneity and Seismotectonics of the National Capital Region, Delhi, India. Pure Appl. Geophys. 170, 607–616 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-012-0572-7

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