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Estimation of Seismicity Parameters and Development of Seismotectonic and Isoseismal Maps for Bihar, India

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Abstract

The present study aims to estimate seismicity parameters, to develop seismotectonic and isoseismal maps for the Bihar state, India. The earthquake catalog is prepared with historical and instrumental seismic events for the last 190 years (from 1833 to 2022). The completeness period for different classes of magnitude (Mw), such as 3.5 < Mw ≤ 4.5, 4.5 < Mw ≤ 5.5, 5.5 < Mw ≤ 6.5, and 6.5 < Mw ≤ 8.0, is 80 (1940–2001), 170 (1851–2022), 140 (1881–2022), and 180 (1831–2011) years, respectively. The study area's seismicity parameters a and b range from 5.13 to 5.79 and 0.64 to 0.76, respectively. The return period of major seismic events (3.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 8.5) in the Himalayan region are estimated using Gumbel’s statistical analysis along with time- and magnitude-predictable model. It is obtained that return period (Tr) of Mw ≥ 7.0 is 44 years. A seismotectonic map is developed for the 350 km radius of the influence zone from the centre of Bihar (latitude 25.8560° N and longitude 85.7868° E) by taking accounts of faults, shear zones and lineaments. Intensity-based isoseismal maps have been developed for five past major earthquakes to determine how significantly they affected the study area. It is found that a maximum Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik (MSK) scale intensity of X could be felt in Bihar if similar seismic events occur. The outcome of this study may be further used for the seismic hazard assessment and assessment of seismic scenario-based planning purposes of the study area.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions helped improve and clarify this manuscript.

Funding

Both authors’ fellowships granted by the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India (New Delhi) allowed the present study to be conducted. Their support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Shillong, 793003, India

    Aakash Kumar

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihta, 801106, India

    Saranika Das

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  1. Aakash Kumar
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  2. Saranika Das
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AK—Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing—original draft. SD: Visualization, Data curation, Validation, Writing—review & editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Saranika Das.

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Kumar, A., Das, S. Estimation of Seismicity Parameters and Development of Seismotectonic and Isoseismal Maps for Bihar, India. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-023-01243-2

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