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Aftershocks study of the 2006 Silakhur earthquake (Zagros, Iran): seismological evidences for a pull-apart basin along the Main Recent Fault, Doroud segments

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Abstract

The Doroud segment of the Main Recent Fault (“MRF”) is studied by installing a local seismic network of 35 short-period stations for a period of 13 weeks from 21 June 2007 to 19 September 2007 in the Silakhur region of the Zagros continental collision zone, close to the epicenter of the 31 March 2006 Silakhur earthquake (M w  ∼ 6.1). Our seismic network also covers the Qale-Hatam and Vanaei segments of the MRF and part of the Nahavand fault. We investigate the geometry and mechanism of the causative fault(s) of the 2006 Silakhur earthquake using aftershocks recorded by the dense local network. Most of the aftershocks in this region are located at a depth of 4–11 km, shallower depth than usual for other seismic zones in the Zagros. The distribution of the aftershocks along the course of the river indicates that older faults in the Silakhur region have been activated during the 2006 earthquake and only a few aftershocks have occurred on the Doroud fault. Tensional and compressional components in the northern part of the Doroud fault are interpreted as a pull-apart basin which has been activated by the right-lateral strike-slip movement of the Doroud fault.

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Acknowledgment

This study was supported by IIEES. We thank IIEES for financial and logistic support, LGIT for instruments and IIEES team for support, administrative and field work assistance including M Masoudi and M Zolfaghari. The authors would like to thank Eric Bergman and Hossein Sepahvand for their help to improve the manuscript. We would like to thank Denis Hatzfeld for his very constructive comments. This work would not have been possible without the help of the people of Lorestan province and especially the local governor of Doroud.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran

    M. R. Sepahvand, F. Yaminifard, M. Tatar & M. R. Abbassi

Authors
  1. M. R. Sepahvand
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  2. F. Yaminifard
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  3. M. Tatar
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  4. M. R. Abbassi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to F. Yaminifard.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Fig. 9
figure 9

Lower hemisphere projections of the focal sphere for fault planes of all solutions. For the polarities, circles represent compressions and triangles represent dilatations. a A group quality example (in this case both of nodal planes can be changed within 2° range), b B group quality example (in this case both of nodal planes can be changed within 14° range)

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Appendix 2

Fig. 10
figure 10figure 10

Lower hemisphere projections of the focal sphere for A and B groups fault plane solution. For the polarities, circles represent compressions and triangles represent dilatations; + and − are uncertain or weak

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Sepahvand, M.R., Yaminifard, F., Tatar, M. et al. Aftershocks study of the 2006 Silakhur earthquake (Zagros, Iran): seismological evidences for a pull-apart basin along the Main Recent Fault, Doroud segments. J Seismol 16, 233–251 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-011-9266-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-011-9266-3

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