Microearthquake survey of Tehran region, Iran

Abstract

A short microearthquake survey of part of north central Iran around the city of Tehran made late in 1974, showed that earthquakes occurred at the rate of 21.37 events per day. Epicentral locations for 37 events, using a geometric ray path technique, show the observed activity to be concentrated in three principal groups: two associated with the known major fault on the south flank of the Alborz mountain, while the third constitutes a previously unrecognized lineation passing very close to the city of Tehran. The cumulative number versus magnitude relation was obtained from the study of 198 well-recorded events. The slope of the linear portion of the relation (b value), −0.79, agrees well with the value of −0.86 determined from the USCGS records of larger earthquakes between 1961 and 1973. Composite fault-plane solutions were made for each of the three principal groups, showing predominantly strike-slip movement with a thrust component on the south of the Alborz and thrusting on the new lineation. The seismic intensity risk curve calculated for the area shows that the city of Tehran can expect ground movement of MM intensity VII every 12 years, and intensity IX every 350 years.

Deep structure of the Alborz Mountains by joint inversion of P receiver functions and dispersion curves

“…The analysis of a dense network of GPS sites covering Central Alborz (Djamour et al, 2010) has revealed important kinematic aspects of the present-day deformation. For the faults south of the range (Mosha, Firuzkuh, and Astaneh), the vertical component of faulting is not significant, consistent with the fact that the faults are mainly left-lateral (e.g., Hedayati et al, 1976;Trifonov et al, 1996;Jackson et al, 2002;Allen et al, 2003;Hessami et al, 2003;Ashtari et al, 2005;Nemati et al, 2011;Solaymani Azad et al, 2011). At the northern border, the Khazar Fault which is suggested as the tectonic boundary between Alborz and the South Caspian Basin (e.g., Berberian et al, 1983), is divided into two distinct portions: (1) the western segment is mainly a thrust fault slipping at ∼6 mm/yr, with a left-lateral component of ∼2-3 mm/yr; (2) the eastern segment is predominately left-lateral (∼5 mm/yr) accompanied with a lesser component of thrust faulting at ∼2-3 mm/yr.…”