Abstract
An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 (M w) occurred in the Sikkim region of India on September 18, 2011. This earthquake is recorded on strong-motion network in Uttarakhand Himalaya located about 900 km away from the epicenter of this earthquake. In this paper acceleration record from six far-field stations has been used to compute the source parameters of this earthquake. The acceleration spectra of ground motion at these far-field stations are strongly affected by both local site effects and near-site anelastic attenuation. In the present work the spectrum of S-phase recorded at these far-field stations has been corrected for anelastic attenuation at both source and site and the site amplification terms. Site amplifications at different stations and near-site shear wave attenuation factor have been computed by the technique of inversion of acceleration spectra given by Joshi et al. (Pure Appl Geophys 169:1821–1845, 2012a). For estimation of site amplification and shear wave quality factor [Q β (f)] at the recording sites, ten local events recorded at various stations between July 2011 and December 2011 have been used. The obtained source spectrum from acceleration records is compared with the theoretical source spectrum defined by Brune (J Geophys Res 76:5002, 1970) at each station for both horizontal components of the records. Iterative forward modeling of theoretical source spectrum gives the average estimate of seismic moment (M o), source radius (r o) and stress drop (Δσ) as (3.2 ± 0.8) × 1026 dyne cm, 13.3 ± 0.8 km and 59.2 ± 8.8 bars, respectively, for the Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aki K (1967) Scaling law of seismic spectrum. J Geophys Res 72:1217–1231
Atkinson GM, Boore DM (1995) Ground-motion relation for eastern North America. Bull Seismol Soc Am 85:17–30
Atkinson GM, Boore DM (1998) Evaluation of models for earthquake source spectra in eastern North America. Bull Seismol Soc Am 88:917–934
Boore DM (1983) Stochastic simulation of high-frequency ground motions based on seismological models of the radiated spectra. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73:1865–1894
Boore DM, Atkinson G (1987) Stochastic prediction of ground motion and spectral response parameters at hard-rock sites in eastern North America. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73:1865–1894
Boore DM, Bommer J (2005) Processing of strong motion accelerograms: needs, options and consequences. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 25:93–115
Boore DM, Joyner WB (1991) Estimation of ground motion at deep soil sites in eastern North America. Bull Seismol Soc Am 81:2167–2185
Brune JM (1970) Tectonic stress and spectra of seismic shear waves from earthquakes. J Geophys Res 75:4997–5009
Brune JN (1971) Correction. J Geophys Res 76:5002
Coats DA, Kanamori H, Houston H (1984) Simulation of strong ground motion from the 1964 Alaskan earthquake (abs.). Earthq Notes 55:18
Dasgupta S, Ganguly J, Neogi S (2004) Inverted metamorphic sequence in the Sikkim Himalayas: crystalline history, P–T gradient and implications. J Metamorph Geol 22:395–412
De R (2000) A microearthquake survey at the MBT zone: Sikkim Himalaya. J Geophys Res 21:1–8
Dunn JA, Auden JB, Ghosh AMN, Roy SC (1939) The Bihar–Nepal earthquake of 1934. Geol Surv India Mem 73:280
Fletcher JB (1980) Spectra from high dynamic range digital recordings at Oroville, California aftershocks and their source parameters. Bull Seismol Soc Am 70:735–755
Fletcher JB (1982) A comparison between the tectonic stress measured in situ and stress parameters from induced seismicity at Monticello reservoir, South Carolina. J Geophys Res 87:6931–6944
Fletcher JB (1995) Source parameters and crustal Q for four earthquakes in South Carolina. Seismol Res Lett 66:44–58
GSI (2000) Seismotectonic atlas of India and its environs. In: Dasgupta S, Pande P, Ganguly D, Iqbal Z, Sanyal E, Venkatraman NV, Dasgupta S, Sural B, Harendranath L, Mazumdar K, Sanyal S, Roy A, Das LK, Mishra PS Gupta HK (eds) Geol. Soc. India, vol 43
Hadley DM, Helmberger DV (1980) Simulation of ground motions. Bull Seismol Soc Am 70:610–617
Hadley DM, Helmberger DV, Orcutt JA (1982) Peak acceleration scaling studies. Bull Seismol Soc Am 72:959–979
Hanks TC (1977) Earthquake stress drops, ambient tectonic stresses and stresses that drive plate motions. Pure Appl Geophys 115:441–458
Hanks TC, Kanamori H (1979) A moment magnitude scale. J Geophys Res 84(B5):2348–2350
Hanks TC, McGuire RK (1981) The character of high frequency ground motion. Bull Seismol Soc Am 71:2071–2095
Harris N (2007) Channel flow and the Himalayan–Tibetan orogen: a critical review. J Geol Soc Lond 164:511–523
Hartzell SH (1978) Earthquake aftershocks as Green’s functions. Geophys Res Lett 5:1–4
Hartzell SH (1982) Simulation of ground accelerations for May 1980 Mammoth Lakes, California earthquakes. Bull Seismol Soc Am 72:2381–2387
Hazarika P, Kumar MR, Srijayanthi G, Raju PS, Rao NP, Srinagesh D (2010) Transverse tectonics in the Sikkim Himalaya: evidence from seismicity and focal-mechanism data. Bull Seismol Soc Am 100:1816–1822
Heaton TH, Hartzell SH (1986) Estimation of strong ground motions from hypothetical earthquakes on the Cascadia subduction zone, Pacific Northwest. US Geol Surv Open file Report, pp 86–328
Housner GW, Jennings PC (1964) Generation of artificial earthquakes. Proc ASCE 90:113–150
Houston H, Kanamori H (1984) The effect of asperities on short period seismic radiation with application on rupture process and strong motion. Bull Seismol Soc Am 76:19–42
Hudson DE (1962) Some problems in the application of spectrum techniques to strong-motion earthquake analysis. Bull Seismol Soc Am 52:417–430
Hutchings L (1985) Modeling earthquakes with empirical Green’s functions (abs). Earthq Notes 56:14
Imagawa K, Mikami N, Mikumo T (1984) Analytical and semi empirical synthesis of near field seismic waveforms for investigating the rupture mechanism of major earthquakes. J Phys Earth 32:317–338
Irikura K (1983) Semi empirical estimation of strong ground motion during large earthquakes. Bull Disaster Prevent Res Inst 33:63–104
Irikura K, Muramatu I (1982) Synthesis of strong ground motions from large earthquakes using observed seismograms of small events. In: Proceedings of the third international microzonation conference, Seattle, pp 447–458
Joshi A (2006a) Use of acceleration spectra for determining the frequency dependent attenuation coefficient and source parameters. Bull Seismol Soc Am 96:2165–2180
Joshi A (2006b) Analysis of strong motion data of the Uttarkashi earthquake of 20th October 1991 and the Chamoli earthquake of 28th March 1999 for determining the mid crustal Q value and source parameters. J Earth Tech 43:11–29
Joshi A, Kumar P, Mohanty M, Bansal AR, Dimri VP, Chadha RK (2012a) Determination of Qβ(f) at different places of Kumaon Himalaya from the inversion of spectral acceleration data. Pure Appl Geophys 169:1821–1845
Joshi A, Kumari P, Singh S, Sharma ML (2012b) Near-field and far-field simulation of accelerograms of Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011 using modified semi-empirical approach. Nat Hazards 64:1029–1054
Kanamori H (1979) A semi empirical approach to prediction of long period ground motions from great earthquakes. Bull Seismol Soc Am 69:1645–1670
Kumar D, Sarkar I, Sri Ram V, Khattri KN (2005) Estimation of the source parameters of the Himalaya earthquake of October 19, 1991, average effective shear wave attenuation parameter and local site effects from accelerograms. Tectonophysics 407:1–24
Lai SP (1982) Statistical characterization of strong ground motions using power spectral density function. Bull Seismol Soc Am 72:259–274
Lancose C (1961) Linear differential operators. D. Van Nostrand Co., Landon
Langston CA (1979) Structure under Mount Rainier, Washington, inferred from teleseismic body waves. J Geophys Res 84:4749–4762
Lee WKH, Lahr JC (1972) HYPO71: a computer program for determination of hypocenter, magnitude, and first motion pattern of local earthquakes. Open File Report, US Geological Survey, p 100
Lermo J, Chavez-Garcia F (1993) Site effect evaluation using spectral ratios with only one station. Bull Seismol Soc Am 83:1574–1594
McGuire RK, Becker AM, Donovan NC (1984) Spectral estimates of seismic shear waves. Bull Seismol Soc Am 74:2167–2185
Mikumo T, Irikura K, Imagawa K (1981) Near field strong motion synthesis from foreshock and aftershock records and rupture process of the main shock fault (abs.). In: IASPEI 21st general assembly, London
Munguia L, Brune JM (1984) Simulations of strong ground motions for earthquakes in the Mexicali-Imperial Valley. In: Proceedings of the workshop on strong ground motion simulation and earthquake engineering applications. Pub. 85-02. Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Los Altos, CA, pp 21-1–21-19
Nakamura Y (1988) Inference of seismic response of surficial layer based on microtremor measurement. Quarterly report on railroad research 4. Railway Technical Railway Institute, pp 18–27 (In Japanese)
Nath SK, Thingbaijam KKS (2009) Seismic hazard assessment—a holistic microzonation approach. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 9:1445–1459
Nath SK, Sengupta P, Sengupta S, Chakrabarti A (2000) Site response estimation using strong motion network: a step towards microzonation of the Sikkim Himalayas. Curr Sci 79:1316–1326
Nath SK, Vyas M, Pal I, Singh AK, Mukherjee S, Sengupta P (2005) Spectral attenuation models in the Sikkim Himalaya from the observed and simulated strong motion events in the region. Curr Sci 88(2):295–303
Neogi S, Dasgupta S, Fukuoka M (1998) High P–T polymetamorphic, dehydration melting and generation of migmatites and granites in the Higher Himalayan Crystalline, Sikkim, India. J Petrol 39:61–99
Papageorgiou A, Aki K (1983) A specific barrier model for the quantitative description of inhomogeneous faulting and the prediction of strong ground motion. Part 1. Description of the model. Bull Seismol Soc Am 73:693–722
Paul A, Gupta SC, Pant CC (2003) Coda Q estimates for Kumaon Himalaya. Proc Ind Acad Sci (Earth Planet Sci) 112:569–576
Press WH, Teukolsky SA, Vetterling WT, Flannery BP (1992) Numerical recepies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Raju PS, Rao NP, Singh A, Kumar MR (2007) The 14 February 2006 Sikkim earthquake of magnitude 5.3. Curr Sci 93:6
Ruff LJ (1999) Dynamic stress drop of recent earthquakes: variations within subduction zones. Pure Appl Geophys 154(1999):409–431
Sharma ML, Wason HR (1994) Occurrence of low stress drop earthquakes in the Garhwal Himalaya region. Phys Earth Planet Interior 34:159–172
Singh SK, Ordaz M, Dattatrayam RS, Gupta HK (1999) A spectral analysis of the 21 May 1997, Jabalpur, India, earthquake (Mw = 5.8) and estimation of ground motion from future earthquakes in the Indian shield region. Bull Seismol Soc Am 89:1620–1630
Sinozuka M, Sato Y (1967) Simulation of nonstationary random processes. Proc ASCE 93:11–40
Wells LD, Coppersmith KJ (1994) New empirical relationships among magnitude, rupture length, rupture width, rupture area and surface displacement. Bull Seismol Soc Am 84:974–1002
Acknowledgments
Authors sincerely thank Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for supporting the research work presented in this paper. The work presented in this paper is an outcome of the sponsored project from ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, with Grant No. MoES/P.O.(Seismo)/1(42)/2009.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Joshi, A., Kumar, P. & Arora, S. Use of site amplification and anelastic attenuation for the determination of source parameters of the Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011, using far-field strong-motion data. Nat Hazards 70, 217–235 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0806-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0806-8