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Role of site effect for the evaluation of attenuation characteristics of P, S and coda waves in Kinnaur region, NW Himalaya

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Abstract

The site effect and attenuation studies are carried out for Kinnaur region of northwest Himalaya, India. A total of 109 local events happened in Kinnaur region of magnitude range 1.6–4.5, are utilized for present work. The earthquake records are influenced by the site effect depending on soft sediment thickness beneath the recording sites. Therefore, in the present study, records are corrected for site effects to estimate P (Qp), S (Qs) and coda (Qc) wave quality factor. The regional frequency dependent attenuation relations, i.e., \( Q_{p} \left( f \right) = \left( {29 \pm 1} \right)f^{(1.01 \pm 0.05)} \), \( Q_{s} \left( f \right) = \left( {38 \pm 5} \right)f^{(1.1 \pm 0.06)} \) and \( Q_{c} \left( f \right) = \left( {74 \pm 11} \right)f^{(1.17 \pm 0.01)} \) are established for the Kinnaur region. The Kinnaur Himalaya mainly belongs to Higher Himalaya Crystalline (HHC) and Tethys Himalaya, where these two geological units are differentiated by the South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). The resonance frequencies and attenuation characteristics are estimated for both regions, i.e., HHC and Tethys Himalaya. A comparison is made between HHC and Tethys Himalaya in the form of resonance frequencies and attenuation properties. The low value resonance frequency and high rate of attenuation towards the northern side of STDS, i.e., Tethys Himalaya support the presence of low-grade metasedimentary rocks. It suggests that Tethys Himalaya has high seismic hazard potential zone compared to HHC.

Research Highlights

  • Site effects have been incorporated to estimate attenuation characteristics of P, S and coda waves in Kinnaur region, NW Himalaya.

  • The regional frequency dependent attenuation relations i.e. Qp(f ) = (29±1)f(1.01±0.05), Qs(f ) = (38±5) f(1.1±0.06) and Qc(f ) = (74±11) f(1.17±0.01) are established for the Kinnaur region.

  • The close resemblance of resonance frequencies with the geology of the study region has been observed.

  • The Tethys Himalaya lies in present study region has high seismic hazard potential zone as compare to Higher Himalaya Crystalline.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Director WIHG, Dehradun, for giving permission to publish this work. We are thankful to Dr Sushil Kumar, Group Head, Geophysics Group, WIHG for helping us to achieve the goal. Mr. Chandan Bora and Mr. H C Pandey are thanked for assisting to install the seismic stations and retrieve the continuous seismic data and Mr. Dhirendra Nath Yadav for extracting the earthquake event data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India

    Richa Kumari, Parveen Kumar & Naresh Kumar

  2. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Richa Kumari &  Sandeep

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  1. Richa Kumari
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  2. Parveen Kumar
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Correspondence to Parveen Kumar.

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Communicated by Arkoprovo Biswas

Appendices

Appendix

Table A1 The list of the earthquakes used in present work.
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Author statement

The author RK carried out the data processing, computation of the quality factors, site effects and compilation of results. PK wrote the manuscript and helped in interpretation. NK is involved in the data acquisition from the seismographs installed in the field and helped in data processing and analysis. Sandeep helped in manuscript preparation.

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Kumari, R., Kumar, P., Kumar, N. et al. Role of site effect for the evaluation of attenuation characteristics of P, S and coda waves in Kinnaur region, NW Himalaya. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 191 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01454-5

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