Stress State, Seismicity and Subduction Geometries of the Descending Lithosphere Below the Hindukush and Pamir

The paper presents an analysis of spatial distribution of 6600 earthquake events which occurred during the period 1964 to 1999 between latitude 34 to 40°N and longitude 68 to 76°E. This large volume event is reported in the International Seismological Centre (ISC) catalog. In addition to this a total of 248 focal mechanism solutions are considered to derive a generalised predominant stress prevailing in the descending lithosphere below the Hindukush and Pamir regions.

The analysis of spatial distribution shows that the epicentres of the events at shallow level (depth<70 km) are sparsely distributed throughout except for a cluster at the northern end of both the Hindukush and Pamir. The concentration of epicentres at intermediate-depth level between 71 and 170 km below the Hindukush takes a strip-like pattern. It trends along SW-NE, and narrows at the northeastern end of the Hindukush. At deeper level (depth>170 km) the epicentres below the Hindukush are mainly concentrated in a triangular-shaped zone, and the mean points of concentration of the epicentres appear to be shifted towards southwest at increasing depth. The distribution of epicentres at the intermediate and deeper layers of the Pamir is observed to be diffused except a cluster of few events in each layer appears to be shifted towards south-southeast at increasing depth. The distribution of hypocentres changes its concentration from lesser to considerably higher at about 70 km depth, and further takes a minimum at about 170 km depth below the Hindukush and Pamir.

The present study further involves in analysing the composite/group effect of stresses associated with the descending lithosphere below the Hindukush and Pamir after deriving the best-fit generalized predominant directions of stresses. It shows that the intermediate-depth seismic zone below the Hindukush is acted upon by maximum compressive stresses (P axes) from two directions while the deeper-depth zone from three directions, and may convincingly be correlated with the changing shape of the respective seismic zones. Another interesting phenomenon observed here is the change in direction of maximum compressive stresses in clockwise fashion from intermediate to deep seismic zones below the Hindukush. At shallow depths below the Pamir the maximum and minimum (T axes) compressive stresses are acting almost along NNW-SSE and ENE-WSW and are oriented horizontally. T-axes for few events at these depths show almost vertical orientation. The observed down-dip extension is predominantly parallel with the descending lithosphere below the Hindukush. The entire analysis along with the observed scattering of P- and T-axes of some events at intermediate-depths might be indicating a slight contortion of the middle layer below the Hindukush. The spatial distribution of seismicity and the generalised stress pattern of both the regions infer the existence of two-isolated subducting lithosphere. It perhaps has created the eastward expulsion or lateral extrusion of Tibet along the major strike-slip faults like Karakorum, Altyn-Tagh, Kunlun and Red River. Finally, the whole analysis confirms the existence of shield-like continental rigid slab at depths greater than 170 km below the Hindukush.