Seismicity, faulting, and structure of the Koyna-Warna seismic region, Western India from local earthquake tomography and hypocenter locations

Abstract

Although seismicity near Koyna Reservoir (India) has persisted for 50 years and includes the largest induced earthquake (M 6.3) reported worldwide, the seismotectonic framework of the area is not well understood. We recorded ~1800 earthquakes from 6 January 2010 to 28 May 2010 and located a subset of 343 of the highest-quality earthquakes using the tomoDD code of Zhang and Thurber (2003) to better understand the framework.We also inverted first arrivals for 3-D Vp, Vs, and Vp/Vs and Poisson's ratio tomography models of the upper 12km of the crust. Epicenters for the recorded earthquakes are located south of the Koyna River, including a high-density cluster that coincides with a shallow depth (<1.5km) zone of relatively high Vp and low Vs (also high Vp/Vs and Poisson's ratios) near Warna Reservoir. This anomalous zone, which extends near vertically to at least 8km depth and laterally northward at least 15km, is likely a water-saturated zone of faults under high pore pressures. Because many of the earthquakes occur on the periphery of the fault zone, rather than near its center, the observed seismicity-velocity correlations are consistent with the concept that many of the earthquakes nucleate in fractures adjacent to the main fault zone due to high pore pressure. We interpret our velocity images as showing a series of northwest trending faults locally near the central part of Warna Reservoir and a major northward trending fault zone north of Warna Reservoir.