Using a physics-based earthquake simulator to evaluate seismic hazard in NW Iran

Abstract

NW Iran is a region of active deformation in the Eurasia-Arabia collision zone. This high strain field has caused intensive faulting accompanied by several major (M > 6.5) earthquakes as it is evident from historical records. Whereas seismic data (i.e. instrumental and historical catalogues) are either short, or inaccurate and inhomogeneous, physics-based long-term simulations are beneficial to better assess seismic hazard. In this study, a deterministic seismicity model, which consists of major active faults, is first constructed, and used to generate a synthetic catalogue of large-magnitude (M > 5.5) earthquakes. The frequency-magnitude distribution of the synthetic earthquake catalogue, which is based on the physical characteristic and slip rate of the mapped faults, is consistent with the empirical distribution evaluated using record of instrumental and historical events. The obtained results are also in accordance with palaeoseismic studies and other independent kinematic deformation models of the Iranian Plateau. Using the synthetic catalogue, characteristic magnitude for all 16 active faults in the study area is determined. Magnitude and epicentre of these earthquakes are comparable with the historical records. Large earthquake recurrence times and their variations are evaluated, either for an individual fault or for the region as a whole. Goodness-of-fitness tests revealed that recurrence times can be well described by the Weibull distribution. Time-dependent conditional probabilities for large earthquakes in the study area are also estimated for different time intervals. The resulting synthetic catalogue can be utilized as a useful data set for hazard and risk assessment instead of short, incomplete and inhomogeneous available catalogues.