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Modelling of seismicity in southern pakistan using GIS techniques

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Abstract

This study is aimed to elucidate individual fault response and peculiar earthquake characteristics in complex seismotectonic environment of southern Pakistan (Balochistan, Sindh and frontal offshore areas). The southern Pakistan is a seismic-mélange wherein earthquake prone sources are diversified and closely associated with active plate margins. The spatial patterns of seismicity are significant in reckoning seismic potential of active fault lineaments in intraplate cohorts of Arabian, Eurasian and Indian plates. The tectonic earthquakes during the period of 325 B.C to February 2020 are compiled in a catalog. This updated catalog has been thoroughly processed by standard procedures necessary for magnitude coherency, main shocks declustering, magnitude completeness etc. Since, the faulty blocks are extending beyond international borders, a wide region is outlined for cataloging and thorough screening of fault lines. The fault lineaments are digitized after geo-referencing of structural and tectonic maps. A rigorous effort is made to review literature to gather allied data sets of plate kinematics, GPS constraints across faulty blocks and slip-sense during major events. Individual fault lines are examined carefully to discriminate seismicity yield by considering their geometry and influence of seismotectonic settings. The seismicity characteristics of fault lines are used to ascribe ‘seismicity index’ that helped to rank potential faults from I (least active) to V (highly active). Kernel density maps are prepared to allure vulnerable pockets of the fault lineaments for specific magnitude classes. Seismicity Index and Kernel density models are significant to analyze spatial changes in potential magnitude strength which may be pertinent for urban planners and developers to design earthquake resistant buildings in study area.

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Acknowledgements

The open source agencies US Geological Survey and Harvard CMT- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), GEBCO, US Geological Survey and Pakistan Metrological Department are acknowledged for providing access to the desired datasets from their archives. The author is pleased to thankful to Prof. Dr. Mubarik Ali (Pakistan), Dr. Mohammad Mokhtari (Iran) and Dr. Rolodfo Console (Italy) for their critical suggestions and technical guidance to conduct this study. HoD of Earth & Environmental Sciences Department, Bahria University Karachi Campus is also acknowledged for his continuous motivation and facilitation to publish this work.

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  1. Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Bahria University Karachi Campus, Karachi, Pakistan

    Muhammad Jahangir Khan

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  1. Muhammad Jahangir Khan
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Correspondence to Muhammad Jahangir Khan.

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Communicated by: H. Babaie

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Khan, M.J. Modelling of seismicity in southern pakistan using GIS techniques. Earth Sci Inform 13, 1327–1340 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-020-00515-z

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