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Earthquake source dynamics and kinematics of the Eastern Indian Shield and adjoining regions

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Abstract

The Eastern Indian Shield (EIS) consists of two cratonic nuclei, namely Singhbhum craton and Chhotanagpur Granitic Gneissic terrain. This area contains several crisscross faults, lineaments, shear zones, numerous hot springs and three major rivers (e.g., Ganga, Brahmaputra and Damodar). The area is regionally covered by 7 seismic stations and jointly recorded 16 events from the study area, and less noisy waveforms of 4 events were used for focal mechanism analysis using the Cut and Paste method. The focal parameters of these 4 events were compiled with results of 8 events computed by different workers for the study area. To understand the detailed tectonics, focal mechanisms of 21 events for the Himalayan segment were taken from CMT Harvard catalog of duration 1976–2017. Spatial variations of operative stress fields for major tectonic domains were analyzed in the present study based on stress inversion of focal mechanism parameters. We observed strike-slip-dominated movements in the EIS, which changes partially into extension in the northeast part between the Ganga and Brahmaputra Rivers. Thrust-dominated movements evidenced by focal mechanisms and the pure compression in the western segment of the Himalaya in the north might be promoting shear movements in the EIS and adjoining regions. The pure strike-slip in the eastern segment of the Himalaya and its deeper level account for lateral shearing and eastward movements of different tectonic blocks. The normal faulting earthquakes in the northeast part might be indicating stretching in the basement because of convergence of Indian lithosphere beneath the Myanmar plate.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Director, National Centre of Seismology (NCS), New Delhi, and J. L. Gautam, India Metrological Department (IMD), New Delhi, for providing the waveform data. Rashmi Singh is thankful to Mr. Raj Kumar Prasad for giving the earthquake waveform data recorded by the IIT(ISM) observatory. Rashmi Singh is also grateful to Ravi Kumar, Director General, Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, for his essential support during basic analysis of the focal mechanisms. The first author is thankful to Li Zhao for his support during computation of focal mechanism through personal communication. We are thankful to both the anonymous reviewers for suggesting modifications, which improved the quality of our manuscript significantly.

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  1. Department of Applied Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad, 826004, India

    Rashmi Singh & Prosanta Kumar Khan

  2. Science and Technology Department, Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar, 382007, India

    A. P. Singh

  3. National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Lodi Road, New Delhi, 110003, India

    A. P. Singh

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Singh, R., Khan, P.K. & Singh, A.P. Earthquake source dynamics and kinematics of the Eastern Indian Shield and adjoining regions. Acta Geophys. 68, 337–355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-020-00418-z

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