Indian Journal of Geosciences, Volume 63, No.

1 January-March, 2009; pp 1-10

Revisiting the Andaman subduction lithosphere following the 26 December 2004 Sumatra earthquake
Basab Mukhopadhyay1*, Anshuman Acharyya2, Auditeya Bhattacharya1, Sujit Dasgupta and Sujit Ranjan Sengupta1
2

Geodata and Database Division, Monitoring Division, Geological Survey of India, Central Head Quarters, 27 Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700016, India * Corresponding author. E-mail: basabmukhopadhyay@yahoo.com
1

Abstract : The lithospheric configuration of the Benioff zone in the plate subduction regime of Andaman-Sumatra has been constructed using earthquake event data (Mb 4.0) between 1964 and 2005 by designing fifteen 2D cross-sections across the Andaman trench axis. Incorporation of pre- and post-2004 Great Earthquake events (up to December 2005) epitomises the existing naturalistic configuration of the Benioff zone. The angles of Benioff zone in the sections vary from 30 to 57. The depth penetration of Indian Plate along the Benioff zone is more towards Sumatra. The thickness of Indian Plate and SE Asian Plate also increases towards south. The structure of the Benioff zone follows horst-and-graben geometry typifying a piano structure. Structural depth contours of Benioff zone get deflected and get constricted due to juxtaposition at certain locales. These loci in turn coincide with clusters of normal and strike-slip focal-plane solutions in contrast to an overall thrust domain suggesting existence of a number of transverse lithospheric hinge faults (with fixed western end). These transverse faults divide the Benioff zone into three blocks. A change in speed of shear wave along these three blocks during rupture propagation of 26 December 2004 earthquake has been witnessed and is due to the dampening effect caused by these barriers. The overall geometry of the Benioff zone worked out earlier (considering data up to 1993) remains the same in spite of the great earthquake. Keywords : Convergent plate boundary, subducting lithosphere, Benioff zone, 26 December 2004 earthquake, AndamanSumatra arc-trench system

Introduction
The seismotectonic realm bounded between latitude 1-16 N and longitude 90-98 E represents part of Northern Sunda-Andaman Arc System (Fig. 1) comprising Andaman Nicobar Islands, part of the western Thailand and Sumatra. The component of the arc system is exposed as trench zone, outer arc with accretionary prism (ophiolites and sediments of Andaman, Nicobar and Nias group of islands), magmatic inner arc (Barren, Narcondam Islands), spreading centre (Andaman Sea) and back-arc granitic belt of Thailand. The oceanic part of Indian Plate is subducting towards east and northeast beneath the oceanic plate of South East Asian / Andaman Plate along the Andaman Sunda trench zone. Andaman Sea lying east of Andaman Islands is a backarc extensional basin (Andaman Spreading Ridge, ASR) and relates to oblique convergence of Indian-

Fig. 1. Location of the study area. Filled circle is the epicentre of 2004 Great Earthquake. WAF - West Andaman Fault; SFS Sumatra Fault System.

Basab Mukhopadhyay et al./Indian Journal of Geosciences, 63(1): 1-10

Australian plate at the South-East Asian continental margin. The effect of oblique plate convergence includes strikeslip faulting parallel to trench, formation of sliver plate, backarc extension and basin formation (Curray and Moore, 1974; Curray et al., 1979; Curray, 1989; Mukhopadhyay, 1984; Dasgupta et al., 2003; Raju et al., 2004; Curray, 2005; Khan and Chakraborty, 2005). Seismotectonics of the Sunda Andaman arc has been studied by various workers (Mukhopadhyay, 1988; Dasgupta and Mukhopadhyay, 1993; Dasgupta et al., 2003; Curray, 2005) wherein the subduction process of Indian plate below Southeast Asian Plate has been described by geophysical, marine bathymetry, tectonics and seismic data. Construction of 2D depth sections between 0 28 N and longitudes 90-98 E based on earthquakes for a period from 1897 to 1993 was documented by Dasgupta et al. (2003). The depth sections followed by the structural contour map of the Benioff zone also brought out several lithospheric hinge faults across the trend of the Benioff zone. Angle of Benioff zone was construed between 25 and 53 with depth penetration from 70 to 280 km. Andaman Arc system witnessed one of the largest interplate thrust earthquakes on 26 December 2004 at the interface of the subducting Indian lithosphere (Indian plate) and the overriding SE Asian/Andaman Plate. The aftershock zone defines the rupture area extending from northern Sumatra to the Andaman Islands. The Harvard CMT solution indicates thrust faulting in a shallow ENE-dipping (8) plane with a strike of 329 producing a rupture length of 1300 km from northwestern Sumatra to Andaman Island. The moment magnitude of Mw 9.1-9.3 with average slip of 7-10 m and varying width of 160-240 km has been modeled (Stein and Okal, 2005; Lay et al., 2005). Focal mechanisms of the aftershocks suggest predominant thrusting in the frontal arc and strike-slip to normal faulting in the back-arc region (Dasgupta et al., 2005, 2007a). The precursor study identifies a 50-day shortterm quiescence with a high b-value zone near the epicentre preceding the mainshock of 2004 (Dasgupta et al., 2007b). This earthquake has generated a large number of aftershocks along the length of Benioff zone. This enormous amount of seismic data having large areal has prompted the authors to revisit the Andaman subduction lithosphere by constraining the orientation of Benioff zone and delineation of transverse fault planes. Incorporation of pre-and-post 2004 greatearthquake events epitomizes the existing naturalistic configuration of the Benioff zone.

Methods and Treatment

The seismic data for analysis are captured from teleseismic earthquake data (source: ISC) between latitude 1-16 and longitude 90-98 for the period 1964-2002. Events from January 2003 to December 2005 are obtained from NEIC website of USGS. Tectonic framework of the region is captured on GIS platform from the maps published by GSI (Seismotectonic Atlas and its Environs; Dasgupta, et al. 2000) and Curray (2005). In addition, data for CMT double-couple fault-plane solution of selected seismic e v e n t s a r e t a k e n f r o m H RV D w e b s i t e (www.seismology. harvard.edu /CMT search.html). The teleseismic data are treated by two ways to make it consistent. All the events with Mb value greater than or equal to 4.0 are considered for analysis because of its reliability. The events with a depth value equal to zero are deleted from the working database. This process reduces the database to 7867 events. All the 7867 events are plotted with suitable symbology on a tectonic base map (Fig. 2). The magnitude (Mb) class and corresponding number of events are guiding tool to visualize seismicity pattern (Fig.2 ; Table 1). The area is classified into 15 blocks (A to O) each of approximately 1(110km) width, constructed perpendicular to the trend of the Andaman trench i.e., oriented along true-dip direction (Fig. 3). The earthquake events for each block are extracted and 15 database (dbf) files corresponding to 15 blocks were developed. For constructing true-dip sections, a geometric transformation (axial rotation with respect to geographic north) and projection transformation (UTM system) was incorporated into the epicentre of each earthquake event of database files. This process converted the position of each epicentre from degreedecimal coordinate system to Cartesian coordinate system with units in kilometre. This conversion was needed to generate the true-dip sections with both abscissa and ordinates in kilometre scale to avoid exaggeration. In these database files pre and postearthquake events of the 26 December 2004 Sumatra Andaman earthquake are flagged to plot them with different symbols.

Configuration of the Benioff Zone

The depth of the epicentre against converted latitude, longitude of events of a block in kilometre is projected along a depth section placed at the centre of the block. Fifteen depth sections defining the plate boundaries could be outlined (Figs. 4a and 4b, sections A to O). The

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Fig. 2. Earthquake distribution map (magnitude in Mb) of 7867 events in the study area. NA- Narcondam Island, BA- Barren Island. ASRAndaman Spreading Ridge; SF Semangko Fault; SSF- Shan Scrap Fault; SFS Sumatra Fault System; WAF- West Andaman Fault; RFRanong Fault; KMF- Khlong Marui Fault. AR Alcock Rise, SR Sewell Rise, MR Margui Ridge.

Table 1. Earthquake size distribution in the Andaman Sumatra sector for the period 1964-2005 Mb Range 4 - 4.5 > 4.5 - 5.0 > 5 - 5.5 > 5.5 - 6.0 > 6 - 6.5 > 6.5 Total No. of events 4311 2550 755 189 43 19 7867

plate boundaries of overriding (Andaman/SE Asian Plate) and subducting plate (Indian Plate) are delineated after considering the concentration of earthquakes, mode of rupture and orientation of P-T axes in the CMT solutions along plate margin. Interestingly, plate boundaries are gradually well defined towards south (A to O). The salient features of the sections are interpreted (see Table 2). Section A (Fig. 4a) has an ill-defined plate boundary with minimum depth of penetration of Indian Plate (145 km). Section B and C are significant in a sense that section B contains a dormant volcano, viz.

Basab Mukhopadhyay et al./Indian Journal of Geosciences, 63(1): 1-10

Table 2. Dip, depth of penetration and length of the Benioff zone in sectors A to O of Figs. 4a & 4b Block Penetration depth (km) Average dip of Benioff zone Length of subducting plate along Benioff zone (km) 236 294 325 370 396 414 446 418 364 428 462 492 497 504 396

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

145 172 198 230 218 225 241 190 218 263 284 273 251 286 287

48 50 54 46 57 56 46 38 41 41 40 35 30 31 45

Fig. 3. Fifteen data blocks (A to O) perpendicular to the trench marked on the seismotectonic map of AndamanSumatra region. Annotations as per Fig. 2. Filled circle is the epicentre of 2004 Great Earthquake. Star indicates volcano.

Narcondam, whereas section C contains an active volcano, viz. Barren. Near Barren volcano the Indian Plate dips into mantle by a vertical depth of 198 km, thus continuously producing basaltic magma from slab melting making it the only active volcano in this part of convergent margin. The distension zone of Andaman Spreading Ridge (ASR) known to produce earthquake swarms at shallow depth are well defined in the sections A to F. The trajectory of Benioff zone in the sections varies in angle from 30-57 (Table 2). The angle is higher (> 45) in the sections A to G (Fig. 4a) where the direction of plate convergence makes high angle to the

section lines, whereas it is lower (< 45 from H to O (Figs. 4a and 4b) along the Sunda trench where direction of plate convergence is making small angle to the section lines. The total plate interface available for generating an earthquake could also be indicated (see column 4 of Table 2). The average depth penetration of Benioff zone is greater towards Sumatra (column 2, Table 2 indicates the penetration of the plate into the upper mantle). The thickness of Indian Plate and SE Asian Plate also increases towards south. The thickness is maximum (> 100 km) in N and O sections (Fig. 4b). The thickening of plate is possibly due to underplating in the junction between Indian and Australian Plates further south that triggered the largest earthquakes on either side of plate junction recently (Sumatra Andaman earthquake M 9.2 of 26 December 2004 and Banyak island earthquake M 8.7 of 28 March 2005). The depth, latitude and longitude of Benioff zone are extracted from the depth sections (Figs. 4a & 4b). These representative points with depths in kilometer are converted into a geographic grid. The grid points are interpolated with depth in kilometer by inverse-

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Fig. 4a. Hypocentral depth sections across Andaman-Sumatra region corresponding to 8 blocks (A to H) as shown in Fig.3. Circles indicate pre2004 great earthquake events while triangles postdate the event. T - trench axis, WAF West Andaman Fault, OAR Outer Arc Ridge, B - Barren, N Narcondam, AR Alcock Rise, SR Sewell Rise, MR- Margui Ridge, ASR Andaman Spreading Ridge, SEU Seulimeum strand of SFS, SFS Sumatra Fault System.

distance weighted technique to generate the top surface of the Benioff zone. The Benioff zone (Fig. 5) has been plotted with structural depth contours at 20 km interval. From the deflection, juxtaposition of the depth contours and mismatch focal plane solutions (normal and strikeslip) in an overall thrust domain; lithospheric hinge faults (8 in numbers; f1 to f8) across the Benioff zone are construed (Fig. 5). These hinge faults make the top surface of the Benioff zone into series of step faults with a fixed western end. The geometry is like a piano type horst and graben structure. The horst is in between f3 and f4, whereas, graben is placed in between f6 and f7 (Fig. 5). It is interesting to

note that the Barren volcano is situated at the junction between West Andaman Fault (WAF) and f3 hinge fault. The hinge fault f3 probably acts as a feeder channel for active Barren volcano.

CMT Solutions
There are 976 numbers of CMT solution data available from 1977 to 2005, which are extracted from Harvard Moment Tensor Database. Following the methodology of Frohlich and Apperson (1992), this has been classified into normal, strike-slip or thrust mode of fault plane rupture depending on angle of compressional (P), tensional (T), neutral axis (B) and orientation of slip on

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Fig. 4b. Hypocentral depth sections across Andaman-Sumatra region corresponding to 7 blocks (I to O) as shown in Fig.3. Circles/ stars indicate pre-2004 Great Earthquake events while triangles postdate the event. T - trench axis, WAF West Andaman Fault, OAR Outer arc Ridge, B Barren, N Narcondum, AR Alcock Rise, SR Sewell Rise, MR- Margui Ridge, ASR Andaman Spreading Ridge, SEU Seulimeum strand of SFS, SFS Sumatra Fault System.

the fault plane. This process classified the 976 numbers of CMT data into 231 normal fault, 242 strike-slip and 503 thrust plane solutions. The faults are shown with suitable symbology (Fig. 6). The map (Fig. 6) divides the total area into three distinct parts. A zone dominated by thrust fault solutions along the Benioff zone extends from SundaAndaman Trench axis to the east of West Andaman Fault. This zone also has linear clusters of both normal and strike-slip solutions. Such clusters are attributable to presence of transverse hinge faults (f1 to f8 of Fig. 6). Similarly the zone dominated by strike-slip fault plane solution with minor amount of thrust and normal fault plane solutions is attributable to mode of rupture in upper plate or overriding plate (SE Asian / Andaman Plate). The earthquakes with strike-slip and normal

fault plane solution along the rift zone of ASR has generated swarms of 1983-84, 1993 and 2005. Intrusion of magmatic dyke from underlying plume along the weak zones in the crust followed by rifting, spreading and collapse of rift walls releases the accumulated strain in the form of earthquake swarms (Mukhopadhyay and Dasgupta, 2008).

Inferences
The convergence between Indian and SE Asian plates is being accommodated by the Burma-AndamanSumatra-Java subduction system. The change in orientation of the trench (E-W near Java, NW-SE around Sumatra, and N-S near Andaman) is responsible for frontal subduction in the southern sector and tangential subduction with strike-slip motion in the

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150 Kilometres

Fig. 5. Structural depth contour map representing top surface of the subducting Indian Plate as imaged through the 2D sections. Contour values are in kilometres. Eight lithospheric hinge faults (f1 to f8) have been interpreted. Transverse orientation of the faults to the strike of the arc suggests for contortions affecting the subducting lithosphere. D and U indicate up-thrown and down-thrown blocks with respect to that particular fault. Star indicates volcano. Annotation as per Fig. 2.

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Fig. 6. Depth image of the top surface of Benioff zone with focal-plane solutions of 976 earthquakes. Annotation as per Fig. 2. See the concentration of earthquakes with normal and strike-slip fault-plane solutions in and around the transverse faults (f1f8).

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northern Sumatra-Andaman sector (the present study area). The strike-slip motion is accommodated by the fault systems with dextral vergence parallel to the Andaman trench [Sumatra Fault System (SFS), West Andaman Fault (WAF) and Semangko Fault (SF) (Fig.1)]. Though the convergence has started during the Cretaceous, the trajectory of this convergent margin has changed with geologic time (Khan and Chakraborty, 2005). This change possibly implies rate of subduction and orientation of plate movement. The rotation of the plate / platelets to accommodate the thrust generated by a strong earthquake comparable to the size of 26 December 2004 earthquake is also possible. The geometry of the Benioff zone brought out by the present study has also accommodated the coseismic contortions registered by the main-shock, triggered shocks and aftershocks of 26 December 2004 earthquake on the plate interface. The change in angle of Benioff zone trajectories in the 2D seismic sections is responsible for the presence of lithospheric hinge faults across the trend of the trench axis. These lithospheric hinge faults (8 in numbers; f1 to f8) with a fixed western end across the Benioff Zone are important seismotectonic features in the convergent boundary. The structure of the Benioff zone follows horst-and-graben geometry (piano-type structure). The horst is in between f3 and f4, whereas, graben is placed in between f6 and f7 (Fig. 5). In general the Benioff zone dips towards east with maximum depth attained along Sumatra sector. At the same time, the top surface is also undulated along the length of plate interface. The lithosphere in between the epicentre (26th December 2004 earthquake) and fault f6 tilts slightly towards north, whereas the block between fault f6 and fault f4 slants towards south. Similarly, between faults f3 and f1 the lithosphere again faintly inclines towards north (Fig. 5). These three blocks behaved differently in terms of speed of shear-wave movement during the rupture propagation of 26th December 2004 earthquake. The speed of shear wave in between epicentre and fault f6 was 330 m/sec between f6 and f4 was 250 m/sec white between f3 and f1 it was 85 m/sec (Dasgupta et al., 2005). This radical drop in shear-wave velocity is due to the dampening effect caused by these lithospheric barrier faults. In the present study we have used an extended database up to December 2005 whereas earlier work in

the study area covered by Dasgupta et al. (2003) used a database up to 1993. While comparing the geometry of Benioff zone by these two studies, it is found that overall geometry remains similar despite the great earthquake of 26 December 2004. However, the coseismic contortions developed in the Benioff zone due to the great earthquake have helped constrain a precise delineation of the transverse hinge faults.

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Received 28 December, 2007; Revised manuscript accepted 22 January,2008