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Co-seismic deformation and slip distribution of 5 April 2017 Mashhad, Iran earthquake using InSAR sentinel-1A image: implication to source characterization and future seismogenesis

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Abstract

We analyzed interferometric synthetic aperture radar sentinel-1A-based observations to characterize the source of 5 April 2017 Mashhad, Iran mainshock (Mw 6.1), for the first time to understand the seismogenic potential of the source area using the estimates of co-seismic displacement and slip distribution on applying the steepest descent method (SDM). SAR pixel offsets (SPO) provided a deep insight into the co-seismic surface deformation of the entire source zone. Based on iterations of a total of 451 models, our analysis of sentinel-1A data from ascending and descending tracks revealed surface deformation occurred in an area of 40 × 30 km with a maximum co-seismic uplift of 10 cm. We estimated geodetic moment of 1.9 × 1020 Nm corresponding to the magnitude (Mw 6.0) of the Mashhad mainshock for which the rupture has a planner geometry with uniform slip dislocation in an elastic half-space with slip of 0.35 ± 0.1 m; strike of N313°E having dip of 48° of the thrust fault associated with oblique motion. The rupture length of 45 ± 3 km along-strike and 30 ± 3 km down dip has been estimated. The best-fit fault model geometry derived from SDM suggests that rupture occurred in the vicinity of the Kashafrud thrust fault, located west to the main Kopeh-Dagh Fault with its strike of 315°E. It is observed that a maximum slip of 0.35 m occurred at a depth of 8 km that extended to 10 km in the crust, which is found to be in unison to the Coulomb stress model that showed low-stressed zone is associated with the majority of events of lower magnitude (M ≤ 4.5) in NE–SW to the mainshock, whilst the EW zone to the mainshock found relatively highly stressed as a probable source for generating relatively higher magnitude earthquakes (M > 4.5) in the future. We infer that the estimates of co-seismic source attributes are essentially important for understanding the nature and extent of earthquake risks for Mashhad, Iran earthquake source area and of the areas of analogous geotectonic settings, elsewhere in the world.

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source zone for seismogenesis with respect to the nature and extent of stressed regime in and around the 5 April 2017 mainshock (Mw 6.1); (b) A schematic model that depicts the future source zone for seismogenesis having potential to generate earthquakes of higher magnitude. The yellow circles indicate the aftershocks of the Mashhad mainshock, while the dark circles are past background earthquakes reported for the region

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Data availability

The topographic contribution to the phase is removed using a digital elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Sentinel-1 data are copyright of Copernicus (2016), are used for the study, and are properly acknowledged.

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Acknowledgement

Authors profusely thank Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) for motivating and encouraging for conduction of leading-edge research, which has relevance to societal issues. Authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. Shailesh Nayak, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), India, and Former Secretary, MoES for his encouragement to conduct studies on earthquake source characterization using satellite based data for better insight into the earthquake processes. The authors are also thankful to the Director, National Centre for Seismology (NCS), MoES, India, for support and encouragement. Entire data analyses and novel interpretation have been carried out by authors at NCS, MoES, New Delhi, India. We gratefully thank Prof. R Wang for providing Fortran code for inversion of co-seismic surface deformation data (InSAR, GPS) for fault-slip distribution. The topographic contribution to the phase is removed using a digital elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Sentinel-1 data are copyright of Copernicus (2016). Most of the figures were made using the GMT software (Wessel and Smith, 1998). Differential interferograms are produced using the software package GMTSAR. Colleagues of NCS, MoES are thankfully acknowledged for stimulating discussion. We are extremely grateful to two anonymous reviewers, Editor-in-Chief and the editorial office of NHZ for their useful suggestions that improved our original research article.

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  1. National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Sanjay K. Prajapati & O. P. Mishra

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  1. Sanjay K. Prajapati
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SKP was involved in data scrutiny, data processing and figures generation. OPM performed data Analysis, interpretation and writing of the manuscript

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Correspondence to O. P. Mishra.

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Prajapati, S.K., Mishra, O.P. Co-seismic deformation and slip distribution of 5 April 2017 Mashhad, Iran earthquake using InSAR sentinel-1A image: implication to source characterization and future seismogenesis. Nat Hazards 105, 3039–3057 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04440-8

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