Abstract
A major portion of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent is classified as a stable continental region. However, a few segments in this region are punctuated by rifts and shear zones that are seismically active. The Godavari rift that sutures the eastern Dharwar and the Bastar cratons is one such region, prone to seismic hazard. Estimation of the sedimentary thickness in these seismically active regions assumes importance since locales of thick and soft sediments are vulnerable to destruction due to surface waves generated by earthquakes. In the present study, data from five broadband seismological stations are utilized to estimate the average sedimentary thickness of the Godavari region using the difference in travel times of the direct S and converted Sp phases from local earthquakes. The thickness of sediments varies between 0.32 and 4.32 km. Also, the site-specific response in terms of the fundamental resonance frequency and the corresponding amplifications are estimated using the well-established Nakamura technique. The predominant frequencies are in the range of 1.3–4.61 Hz, and the amplifications are higher (>1.5) for the stations inside the Godavari basin. Both the thickness and amplification values clearly indicate that the sediments tend to get thicker toward the center of the basin, in good agreement with the geological distribution of the sedimentary units.
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Acknowledgments
The Ministry of Earth Sciences supported the seismological experiment across the Godavari basin. This work was performed under the GENIAS project of CSIR-NGRI. We sincerely thank the reviewers for their constructive suggestions that considerably improved the manuscript. G. Srijayanthi acknowledges the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for support in terms of a Senior Research Fellowship.
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Sushini, K., Srijayanthi, G., Solomon Raju, P. et al. Estimation of sedimentary thickness in the Godavari basin. Nat Hazards 71, 1847–1860 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0977-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0977-3