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Site response and source spectra of S waves in the Zagros region, Iran

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Abstract

S wave amplitude spectra from shallow earthquakes with magnitudes ranging between 4.2 and 6.2 in the Zagros region of Iran that occurred between 1998 and 2008 are used to examine source parameters and site response of S waves. A generalized inversion scheme has been used to separate the source, propagation path, and local site effects from S wave spectra. For removing the trade-off between source and site terms and propagation effects (including geometric and anelastic attenuation), the spectral amplitudes of the records used were corrected for attenuation and geometrical spreading function using a path model proposed by Zafarani and Soghrat (Bull Seism Soc Am 102:2031–2045, 2012) for the region. We assume a Brune’s point source model to retrieve source parameters like corner frequency, moment magnitude, and high-frequency fall off coefficient, for each event. When the source spectra are interpreted in terms of Brune’s model, the average stress drops obtained are about 7.1 and 5.9 MPa (71 and 59 bars), respectively for the eastern and western Zagros regions. Stress drops range from 1.4 to 35.0 MPa (14 to 350 bars), with no clear dependence on magnitude. The results in terms of stress drop and S wave seismic energy indicate that the Zagros events are more similar to interplate earthquakes of western North America than to intraplate events of eastern North America. The method also provides us with site responses for all 40 stations individually and is an interesting alternative to other methods, such as the H/V method. A new empirical relationship between body-wave magnitudes and moment magnitude has been proposed for the Iranian plateau using derived seismic moment from the inversion.

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the Building and Housing Research Centre of Iran for providing them with the accelerograms and shear-wave velocities used in the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), No. 26, Arghavan St., North Dibajee, Farmanieh, PO Box 19395/3913, Tehran, Iran

    H. Zafarani

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Western University, Biology & Geological Sciences Bldg., London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5B7

    B. Hassani

Authors
  1. H. Zafarani
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  2. B. Hassani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Zafarani.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table 3 List of earthquakes used in this study
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Appendix B

Table 4 Tabulations of stations with their corresponding shear-wave velocity
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Zafarani, H., Hassani, B. Site response and source spectra of S waves in the Zagros region, Iran. J Seismol 17, 645–666 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-012-9344-1

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