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Seismogenic faulting of the sedimentary sequence and laterally variable material properties in the Zagros Mountains (Iran) revealed by the August 2014 murmuri (E. Dehloran) earthquake sequence


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Authors

Karasozen, E 
Oveisi, B 
Elliott, JR 
Samsonov, S 

Abstract

We present source models for the August 2014 Murmuri (Dehloran) earthquake sequence in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. An Mw6.2 mainshock was followed by an aftershock sequence containing 5 events of Mw ≥ 5.4. Models of P and SH waveforms show that all events had dominantly thrust-faulting mechanisms, and had centroid depths that place them within the thick sedimentary sequence, above the crystalline basement. The combination of our estimated focal mechanisms, relative relocations of the event hypocentres, and the surface displacement patterns observed using InSAR, imply that the mainshock and largest aftershock ruptured different fault planes and both contributed to the surface deformation. The fault planes both slipped in horizontally-elongated patches, possibly due to rheological layering limiting the up- and down-dip extent of rupture. The slip vector of the Murmuri mainshock implies that the decollement beneath the Lorestan Arc is weaker than any such feature beneath the Dezful Embayment, providing an explanation for the plan-view sinuosity of the range-front of the Zagros Mountains.

Description

Keywords

Satellite geodesy, Earthquake source observations, Continental neotectonics, Rheology: crust and lithosphere, Asia

Journal Title

Geophysical Journal International

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0956-540X
1365-246X

Volume Title

203

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)
Sponsorship
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J016322/1)
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J019895/1)
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/K011014/1)
This work form part of the NERC- and ESRC-funded project ‘Earthquakes Without Frontiers’. JRE is funded by the NERC projects ‘COMET’ and ‘LiCS’.