Recent seismicity in Northeast India and its adjoining region

Recent seismicity in the northeast India and its adjoining region exhibits different earthquake mechanisms – predominantly thrust faulting on the eastern boundary, normal faulting in the upper Himalaya, and strike slip in the remaining areas. A homogenized catalogue in moment magnitude, M _W, covering a period from 1906 to 2006 is derived from International Seismological Center (ISC) catalogue, and Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT) database. Owing to significant and stable earthquake recordings as seen from 1964 onwards, the seismicity in the region is analyzed for the period with spatial distribution of magnitude of completeness m _t, b value, a value, and correlation fractal dimension D _C. The estimated value of m _t is found to vary between 4.0 and 4.8. The a value is seen to vary from 4.47 to 8.59 while b value ranges from 0.61 to 1.36. Thrust zones are seen to exhibit predominantly lower b value distribution while strike-slip and normal faulting regimes are associated with moderate to higher b value distribution. D _C is found to vary from 0.70 to 1.66. Although the correlation between spatial distribution of b value and D _C is seen predominantly negative, positive correlations can also be observed in some parts of this territory. A major observation is the strikingly negative correlation with low b value in the eastern boundary thrust region implying a possible case of extending asperity. Incidentally, application of box counting method on fault segments of the study region indicates comparatively higher fractal dimension, D, suggesting an inclination towards a planar geometrical coverage in the 2D spatial extent. Finally, four broad seismic source zones are demarcated based on the estimated spatial seismicity patterns in collaboration with the underlying active fault networks. The present work appraises the seismicity scenario in fulfillment of a basic groundwork for seismic hazard assessment in this earthquake province of the country.     

Source and dispersal of suspended sediment in the macro-tidal Gulf of Kachchh

The macro-tidal Gulf of Kachchh, covering nearly 7000 km(2), is located about 150 km south of the Indus River mouth. In spite of semi-arid climate and lack of major rivers flowing into it, the Gulf is highly turbid with suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) during October-November 2002 ranging between 0.5 and 674 mgl(-1). Highly turbid waters are observed towards the northern portion of the mouth of the Gulf, at the head of the Gulf and adjacent to the numerous shoals present within the Gulf. Perennial high SSC in the Gulf is due to resuspension of sediments by strong tidal currents, shallow bathymetry and presence of fine-grained sediments on the sea floor. Numerical model studies show that there is a dynamic barrier in the central Gulf, which prevents the exchange of water and suspended sediments between the outer and inner Gulf. This dynamic barrier associated with strong east-west tidal currents restricts the turbid waters mainly to the northern Gulf, resulting in relatively clear waters (SSC<10 mgl(-1)) in the southern and central portions of the Gulf. Laser particle size distribution, clay mineralogy and geochemistry of the suspended matter show that the main source of sediments to the Gulf of Kachchh is the Indus River. Although the Indus discharge has been severely curtailed in the recent decades due to construction of numerous dams and barrages, the Gulf of Kachchh continues to receive resuspended sediments from the numerous meso and macro-tidal creeks of the Indus delta. The sediments at the head of the Gulf appear to be a mixture of sediments derived from the Indus as well as the numerous seasonal rivers draining the Rann of Kachchh.     

Superpenumbral chromospheric flare

We observed a C-class flare at the outer boundary of the superpenumbra of a sunspot. The flare was triggered by an emerging magnetic bipolar region that was obliquely oriented with respect to the superpenumbral fibrils. The flare started due to the low height magnetic reconnection of emerging magnetic flux with a superpenumbral field resulting in hot multi-temperature plasma flows in the inverse Evershed flow channel and its overlying atmosphere. Inverse Evershed flows in the chromosphere start from the superpenumbra towards the sunspot that end at the outer boundary of the penumbra. The hot plasma flow towards the sunspot in the inverse Evershed channels show about 10 km s~(-1) higher velocity in Hα wavelengths compared to the plasma emissions at various temperatures as seen in different AIA filters. Even though these velocities are about seven times higher than the typical inverse Evershed flow speeds, the flow is diminished at the outer boundary of the sunspot's penumbra. This suggests that the superpenumbral field lines that carry inverse Evershed flows are discontinued at the boundary where the penumbral field lines dive into the sun and these two sets of field lines are completely distinct. The discontinuity in the typical magnetic field and plasma properties at the adjoining of these two sets of field lines further leads to discontinuity in the characteristic magnetoacoustic and Alfv′en speeds, thereby stopping the plasma flows further on. The multi-temperature plasma in the inverse Evershed channels exhibits possible longitudinal oscillations initially during the onset of the flare, and later flows towards the sunspot. In the multi-temperature view, the different layers above the flare region have a mixture of supersonic as well as subsonic flows.     

Exact solution of the transport equation for imperfect rayleigh scattering in a semi-infinite atmosphere

By performing the one-sided Laplace transform on the matrix integro-differential equation for a semi-infinite plane parallel imperfect Rayleigh scattering atmosphere we derive an integral equation for the emergent intensity matrix. Application of the Wiener-Hopf technique to this integral equation will give the emergent intensity matrix in terms of singularH-matrix and an unknown matrix. The unknown matrix has been determined considering the boundary condition at infinity to be identical with the asymptotic solution for the intensity matrix.     

Exact solution of a simple time-dependent integro-differential equation by the method of Laplace transform and the theory of linear singular operators

The simplest form of the equation of transfer for a time dependent radiation field in finite atmosphere is considered. This equation of transfer is an integro-differential equation, the solution of this equation is based on the theory of separation of variables, the Laplace transform and the theory of linear singular operators. The emergent intensities from the bounding faces of the finite atmosphere are determined in terms ofX-Y equations of Chandrasekhar.     

Site-Specific Modeling of SH and P-SV Waves for Microzonation Study of Kolkata Metropolitan City, India

Kolkata, one of the oldest cities of India, is situated over the thick alluvium of the Bengal Basin, where it lies at the boundary of the zone III and zone IV of the seismic zonation map of India. An example of the study of site effects of the metropolitan Kolkata is presented based on theoretical modeling. Full synthetic strong motion waveforms have been computed using a hybrid method that combines the modal summation and finite difference techniques. The 1964 Calcutta earthquake, which was located at the southern part of Kolkata, is taken as the source region, with the focal mechanism parameters of dip?=?32°, strike?=?232° and rake?=?56°. Four profiles are considered for the computation of the synthetic seismograms from which the maximum ground acceleration (A _MAX) is obtained. Response spectra ratios (RSR) are then computed using a bedrock reference model to estimate local amplifications effects. The A _MAX varies from 0.05 to 0.17?g and the comparison of the A _MAX with the different intensity scales (MM, MSK, RF and MCS) shows that the expected intensity is in the range from VII to X (MCS) for an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 at an epicentral distance of about 100?km. This theoretical result matches with the empirical (historical and recent) intensity observations in Kolkata. The RSR, as a function of frequency, reaches the largest values (largest amplification) in the frequency range from 1.0 to 2.0?Hz. The largest site amplification is observed at the top of loose soil.     

Unification of periodic fluctuations in high latitude geophysical phenomena

The oscillatory nature of wave-particle interaction is proposed to be the source of non-local fluctuations in the electron energy. The energized electron flux when precipitated in the lower ionosphere gives rise to various geophysical phenomena. The time scale of energy oscillation is estimated and its validity is discussed with reference to observed time scales of various geophysical phenomena.     

Seismic waves due to storm over the sea: I

Summary Elastic wave propagation problem has been studied in the composite medium — a gravitating liquid layer overlying an elastic half-space. Assuming moving normal pressure load on the free surface, an attempt has been made to study the order of disturbance on the earth's surface. In the discussion asymptotic values of the displacement, components have been considered for small values of the parameter.     

Earthquake hazard zonation of Sikkim Himalaya using a GIS platform

An earthquake hazard zonation map of Sikkim Himalaya is prepared using eight thematic layers namely Geology (GE), Soil Site Class (SO), Slope (SL), Landslide (LS), Rock Outcrop (RO), Frequency–Wavenumber (F–K) simulated Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Predominant Frequency (PF), and Site Response (SR) at predominant frequencies using Geographic Information System (GIS). This necessitates a large scale seismicity analysis for seismic source zone classification and estimation of maximum earthquake magnitude or maximum credible earthquake to be used as a scenario earthquake for a deterministic or quasi-probabilistic seismic scenario generation. The International Seismological Center (ISC) and Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT) catalogues have been used in the present analysis. Combining b-value, fractal correlation dimension (Dc) of the epicenters and the underlying tectonic framework, four seismic source zones are classified in the northeast Indian region. Maximum Earthquake of M _W 8.3 is estimated for the Eastern Himalayan Zone (EHZ) and is used to generate the seismic scenario of the region. The Geohazard map is obtained through the integration of the geological and geomorphological themes namely GE, SO, SL, LS, and RO following a pair-wise comparison in an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Detail analysis of SR at all the recording stations by receiver function technique is performed using 80 significant events recorded by the Sikkim Strong Motion Array (SSMA). The ground motion synthesis is performed using F–K integration and the corresponding PGA has been estimated using random vibration theory (RVT). Testing for earthquakes of magnitude greater than M _W 5, a few cases presented here, establishes the efficacy and robustness of the F–K simulation algorithm. The geohazard coverage is overlaid and sequentially integrated with PGA, PF, and SR vector layers, in order to evolve the ultimate earthquake hazard microzonation coverage of the territory. Earthquake Hazard Index (EHI) quantitatively classifies the terrain into six hazard levels, while five classes could be identified following the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) PGA nomenclature for the seismic zonation of India. EHI is found to vary between 0.15 to 0.83 quantitatively classifying the terrain into six hazard levels as “Low” corresponding to BIS Zone II, “Moderate” corresponding to BIS Zone III, “Moderately High” belonging to BIS Zone IV, “High” corresponding to BIS Zone V(A), “Very High” and “Severe” with new BIS zones to Zone V(B) and V(C) respectively.