Estimation of the source parameters of the Nepal earthquake from strong motion data

A. Joshi, Monu Tomer (), Sohan Lal, Sumer Chopra, Sandeep Singh, Sanjay Prajapati, M. L. Sharma and Sandeep
Additional contact information
A. Joshi: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Monu Tomer: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Sohan Lal: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Sumer Chopra: Ministry of Earth Sciences
Sandeep Singh: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Sanjay Prajapati: Ministry of Earth Sciences
M. L. Sharma: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Sandeep: Banaras Hindu University

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2016, vol. 83, issue 2, No 5, 867-883

Abstract: Abstract Kathmandu and its surrounding region were rocked recently by a devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015. This is the largest earthquake that has occurred in this region since the past eight decades. This earthquake was recorded on strong motion stations located about 470–522 km away from its epicenter. Records of accelerographs from these stations have been used to determine the location of this earthquake using hypo71 algorithm given by Lee and Lehr (HYPO71, a computer program for determining hypocenter, magnitude and first motion pattern of local earthquakes. US Geological Survey Open file report, 100, 1975). The recorded accelerograms have been corrected for site effects using site amplification curve obtained from ambient seismic noise recorded at each station. Site effect has been computed using H/V ratio method given by Nakamura (Q Rep RTRI 30(1):25–33, 1989) using ambient noise data. The corrected record is further used to obtain source displacement spectra. The source spectrum obtained from strong motion data is compared with theoretical source spectrum obtained from Brune’s (J Geophys Res 75:4997–5009, 1970) model for the horizontal components. The long-term flat level and corner frequency from source displacement spectra are used to calculate stress drop, source radius and seismic moment of this earthquake. The present study indicates that the Nepal earthquake originated 12.0 km below the epicenter located at 27.93°N, 84.70°E. The source radius, stress drop and seismic moment of this earthquake estimated from source displacement spectra are 44.13 ± 3.85 km, 18.68 ± 5.93 bars and 3.53 ± 0.28 × 1027 dyne cm, respectively.

Keywords: Strong motion; Himalaya; Spectrum; Site effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-016-2351-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:83:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s11069-016-2351-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-016-2351-8

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().