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The 12 November 2017 Mw 7.4 earthquake in Sarpol-e-Zahab (Iran–Iraq): a complex fault rupture in the Zagros Mountains

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Abstract

On 12 November 2017, the NW–SE-trending fold-and-thrust Zagros Mountains (Iran–Iraq) border region experienced a large (Mw 7.4) and damaging earthquake. Using seismotectonic investigations coupled with InSAR and GPS data analysis, we test several scenarios of coseismic deformation associated with either a west-dipping high angle (76°) backthrust fault geometry or a gently (~ 16°) east dipping earthquake rupture. Apparently, no surface rupture was observed and with the local Iranian seismic network the mainshock is at 18 ± 2 km depth, in agreement with IPGP, GCMT, USGS GFZ and IRSC locations. Interferograms obtained from both ascending and descending Sentinel-1A–1B images show NNW-SSE-trending deformation lobes with uplift of up to 0.9 m in the WSW hanging block and subsidence of ~ 0.4 m in the ENE footwall. The thrust focal mechanisms of the mainshock being all comparable, the forward and best-fit inversion model concur with the WSW block uplift and backthrust geometry, reaching ~ 11 m coseismic slip at depth. Any forthcoming seismic hazard models for this plate boundary need to consider a segmented Zagros fold-and-thrust belt with major earthquakes on backthrust seismogenic faults.

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Data and resources

Earthquake mechanisms are from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor: http://www.globalcmt.org/CMTsearch.html. Sentinel 1A and 1B data are from the European Space Agency: https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/sentinel-data-access. SRTM data are from http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp.

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Acknowledgements

This article is a tribute to the late Aykut Barka, the father of earthquake geology in the Mediterranean regions. Mohamed Saleh has a postdoc position with a fellowship from Institut Français d’Egypte (IFE) and Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF, Cairo). Esra Cetin benefited from an Eiffel scholarship and support from the French Embassy in Ankara (Turkey). We are thankful to the European Space Agency for the Sentinel data. The authors wish to thank Mehdi Zare (IEES) and to Hafidh Ghaleb (Array Information Technology, Florida) for the access to the seismicity database, and Ryma Chebli (EOST) for assistance in illustrations. This research program is funded by the ITES - UMR 7063 Strasbourg. Some figures were prepared using the public domain GMT software (Wessel and Smith 1998).

Funding

This study was funded by the Institut de Physique du Globe (now ITES) CNRS—UMR 7516. The first author MS has received research grants from the French Embassy in Egypt. The third author EC received the EIFFEL grant during her stay at the IPGS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ITES (CNRS - UMR7063), Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    M. Saleh & M. Meghraoui

  2. National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt

    M. Saleh

  3. Department of Geological Engineering, Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Mugla, Turkey

    E. Cetin

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  1. M. Saleh
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Correspondence to M. Meghraoui.

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Saleh, M., Meghraoui, M. & Cetin, E. The 12 November 2017 Mw 7.4 earthquake in Sarpol-e-Zahab (Iran–Iraq): a complex fault rupture in the Zagros Mountains. Med. Geosc. Rev. 5, 177–188 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-023-00107-1

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