Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Earthquake Source Parameters and their Scaling for the

Uttarakhand region of North-West Himalaya
Kumar Arjun1*, Kumar Ashwani2, Gupta S. C.2, Mittal Himanshu3 and Sen Arup2
1. Department of Civil Engineering, Arni University, Kathgarh (Indora), Himachal Pradesh, INDIA
2. Department of Earthquake Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, Uttarakhand, INDIA
3. Centre of Excellence in Disaster Mitigation and Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, Uttarakhand, INDIA
*arjundeq@gmail.com

1):2002]. Two most well studied moderate earthquakes of

the region are: the Uttarkashi earthquake of 1991 (mb 6.6
IMD) and the Chamoli earthquake of 1999 (mb 6.3 USGS).

Abstract
The Uttarakhand region of North-West Himalaya
exhibits high historic and instrumental seismicity as
evidenced by the occurrence of several moderate to
large-sized earthquakes in the region. Source
parameters of 16 small and moderate-sized
earthquakes (3.1Mw6.7) have been estimated and a
scaling law for the region has been developed. In this
study software EQK_SRC_PARA33 has been used that
considers Brunes model that yields a fall-off of 2
beyond corner frequencyfc with high frequency
dimunition factor presented by Boore7 to estimate fmax.
The estimated seismic moments range from 5.11013
to 1.101019Nm. The source radii are confined
between 200 m to 9.7km, the stress drop ranges
between 2.59MPa to 8.34MPa respectively.

Attempts have been made to study the seismotectonics of

this region using teleseismic data39 and local earthquake
data27 and to estimate the source parameters of the
earthquakes occurring in the region using local earthquake
data.31,34,45 These are essential requirements to estimate the
design earthquake parameters for the design of hydropower
projects as well as to estimate the peak ground motions for
the seismic hazard assessment. Fifteen earthquakes have
occurred in the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya and
one earthquake has occurred near Roorkee in the Ganga in
deep, south of MBT.
In this study both the strong motion data and weak motion
data
have
been
analyzed
using
software
EQK_SRC_PARA28 to determine the source parameters
and scaling law for the region. Acceleration and
displacement spectrums of SH component of ground
motion generated by earthquakes have been analyzed
considering Brunes earthquake source model yielding a
fall-off of 2 beyond corner frequency considered with high
frequency dimunition factor, a Butterworth high-cut filter
presented by Boore7 to estimatefmax.

Using the data set of 16 events, a scaling law, M0 fc3 =

3.0 x 1016 Nm/s3 has been developed for the region.
From the plot between seismic moment and fmax, the
values of fmax seem to be dependent on the source size
and vary from 4 Hz to 18 Hz at various sites falling in
the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya. Comparing
the average stress drop of 6.0 MPa obtained in the
present study, with the global average of 3.0 MPa for
inter-plate earthquakes, it can be inferred that the
average stress drop associated with the small and
moderate earthquakes is almost double in the
Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya. The estimates
of stress drops, fmax and scaling law will help to
simulate strong ground motion using stochastic
methods for this region.

Geology, tectonics and seismicity of the area

The Uttarakhand region which forms part of the
northwestern Himalaya and lies between the rupture zones
of the two great earthquakes viz. the Kangra earthquake of
1905 and the Bihar-Nepal earthquake of 1934. The broad
geologic and tectonic framework of the study area that falls
in the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya Himalaya is
shown in figure 1. This figure depicts the surface trace of
the main boundary thrust (MBT), the main central thrust
(MCT), main frontal thrust (MFT) and regional tectonic
features such as South Almora Thrust (SAT), North
Almora Thrust (NAT), Moradabad fault (MT), Great
boundary fault (GBF) along with local tectonic features like
Alaknanda fault (AF), Ramgarh thrust (RT) and Martoli
thrust (MT)18.

Keywords: Source parameters, fmax, Scaling Relation,

Uttarakhand, NW Himalaya.

Introduction
The Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya lies
approximately between latitude 29.0 N to 31.5 N and
longitude 77.5 E to 81.0E. The mighty rivers like Ganga,
Yamuna, Bhagirathi, Bhilangna and Alakhananda traverse
through the region and possess immense potential for the
generation of hydroelectric power. In view of this many
hydropower projects have either been constructed or are
under investigation and planning stage. The region falls in
the seismic zones IV and V as per IS Code [IS 1893 (Part

The seismicity of the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya

in particular is of interplate type. A significant feature of
seismicity of the Himalaya is that the distribution of
locations of earthquakes follows the trend of the mountain
range. Epicentres of most of the moderate-sized
earthquakes lie between the main boundary thrust (MBT)
and the main central thrust (MCT)44 and their occurrence is

28

Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

due to reactivation of the parallel low angle detachment

thrust faults in the upper crust27. These upper crustal faults
are possible slip surfaces of crustal shear zones facilitating
the uplift of the lesser and the Higher Himalaya.

18) and data is acquired at a sampling rate of 200 Hz.

About 260 digital accelerographs, networked using
National Informatics Centre (NIC-net) allowed monitoring
the health of accelerographs as well as downloading of the
strong motion data at Department of Earthquake
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The
locations of 37 strong motion stations installed in the
Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya are shown in figure 1
(magenta triangles).

It has been suggested that the earthquakes occur as a

consequence of the same under thrusting Himalayan
orogenic process in the entire region37. The Uttarakhand
region of NW Himalaya exhibits high historic and
instrumental seismicity as evidenced by the occurrence of
several moderate to large sized earthquakes in this region.
Focal depths of the moderate earthquakes in the
Uttarakhand region lie between 12 km to 18 km. The
majority of earthquakes in the Uttarakhand region of NW
Himalaya also occur at shallow depths upto 20 km.16,27,32
The occurrence of two moderate earthquakes (Uttarkashi
and Chamoli earthquakes) at shallow depths caused
significant damage and destruction. The focal mechanisms
of Uttarkashi and Chamoli earthquakes show that the style
of faulting is low angle thrust faulting39,47.

3. The third data set comprises above 14 earthquakes

recorded by a local seismological network deployed in the
Garhwal Himalaya around Tehri region to monitor the local
seismicity. The network comprises of 12 remote stations.
Nine remote stations are radio linked to the central
receiving and recording station located at New Tehri Town
whereas the remaining three remote stations operate in an
independent mode as in figure 1 (black triangles). Each
remote station of the network houses a triaxial short-period
seismometer (Guralp: CMG 40T-1) to sense the ground
motion. The data is acquired at a sampling rate of 100 Hz.
The detailed description of the network and instrumentation
are given in report EQ: 2009-33.

Local earthquake data sets used in the study

Three types of data sets collected from the region of the
Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya have been used in the
study. These data sets are briefly described as follows:

Methods
The time histories are first rotated to obtained SHcomponent of ground motion and then spectrum is
corrected for instrument response and frequency dependent
attenuation (110f1.02) due to path19. Brune model8,9 that
yields a fall-off of 2 beyond corner frequency along with
high frequency dimunition factor is represented by a
Butterworth high-cut filter7 to estimate fmax above which the
spectral amplitudes decay abruptly. The mathematical
model fitted in the observed acceleration spectrum is given
as:

1. The first data set became available from the deployment

of a strong motion array comprised of 50 strong motion
accelerographs (SMA-1 of Kinematrics) deployed in the
Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya for the purpose of
measuring the strong ground motion due to moderate and
large-sized earthquakes occurring in the region10. The
installation of the network started in the mid 1991 and
when about half of the network had been installed, the
Uttarkashi earthquake occurred and was recorded on 13
strong motion stations.

(1)

The locations of the strong motion stations are shown in the

figure 1 (red triangles). At each station the threshold level
(trigger level) to sense the ground motion was set about
0.01 g. The strong ground motion due to the Chamoli
earthquake of 1999 was also recorded at 11 strong motion
stations of this array. The analog recordings of these two
earthquakes were manually digitized using a semi
automatic digitizer and digital data was processed adopting
standard processing procedures48. The data were converted
to a uniform sampling rate of 0.02 s and band-pass filtered
(0.170.20 Hz; 2527 Hz) using an Ormsby filter11.

Similarly for displacement spectrum we have:

(2)
Based on the above expressions, software EQK_
SRC_PARA28 has been adopted for analysis. The software
estimates the spectral parameters namely; low frequency
displacement spectral level (0), corner frequency (fc) and
high-cut frequency (fmax). These spectral parameters have
been used to estimate following source parameters:
The seismic moment, M025 is estimated from the value of
0 as

2. The second data set used in the study comprises 14

events in magnitude range (3.1Mw4.7) recorded on
recently installed digital accelerographs in the Uttarakhand
region of NW Himalaya. These accelerograph installations
form part of the National Strong Motion Network of 300
strong motion stations deployed under Mission Mode
project to cover seismic zones V, IV and some thickly
populated cities falling in seismic zone III28,38. The digital
accelerographs are of GSR-18 type (Geosig, model GSR-

(3)
where is the average density (=2,670kg/m3), is shear
wave velocity in the source zone (=3.2 km/s),
is the
hypocentral distancethat accounts geometrical spreading,

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Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

is the average radition pattern (=0.63) and

surface amplification (=2).

For the purpose of computing the source parameters of the

Uttarkashi earthquake, the processed strong motion data
available in the form of digital acceleration time histories
have been used11. From these digital time histories, the
acceleration spectra at different stations have been
computed adopting the procedures and programs described
by Kumar et al.28 In the computed acceleration spectra it
was not possible to read the corner frequencies because
these lie below 0.1 Hz for an earthquake of this size. The
values of corner frequencies are smaller than the low cut
frequency of band pass filter used during the data
processing. The low cut frequency of the filter falls in the
range from 0.17Hz to 0.20Hz11. However in the
acceleration spectrum, the fmax can be read accurately
although the information of corner frequency has been lost
due to filtering. In view of this the corner frequency fc8 is
approximated by the relation given below:

is free

The moment magnitude21 is given by:

(4)
The source radius and stress drop8,9 are given by:
(5)
(6)

Estimation of hypocenter parameters

The P-wave and S-wave arrival time data (phase-data) of
13 earthquakes has been measured from the digital
seismograms obtained from 12 remote seismological
stations. Phase-data of these earthquakes was also
measured from the strong motion records. The P-arrival
times were measured with an accuracy of 0.01 s. These
two sets of phase-data were combined and have been used
to compute the hypocenter parameters. The velocity model
given in table 1 (EQ: 2009-33) has been adopted for
computing the hypocenter parameters. The HYPOCENTER
computer program has been employed for locating these
local earthquakes36 and computations have been carried out
adopting the earthquake analysis software SEISAN22. The
hypocenter parameters of events along with moment
magnitudes and standard errors are listed in table 2 and
their locations are plotted in figure 1.

fc = 4.9 x 106 (/Mo)1/3

Following Glassmoyer and Borcherdt,17 the value of fc is

related to the low frequency constant spectral levels of
displacement
and high frequency constant acceleration
level
is given below:
(8)
In the above expression the value of
is the average
acceleration amplitude for higher frequencies above fc.
In present study,
is approximated from the
average acceleration amplitude at intermediate frequencies
between fc and fmax (as data below fc is not present in the
spectrum so all values below fmax are considered). The fmax
is obtained as the value of frequency at which jounce or
snap [S(f)=2A (f)], double differential of acceleration, has
peak amplitude. However, it can be picked up visually from
acceleration spectrum also.

Estimation of source parameters

The available data of sixteen earthquakes that have been
recorded in the Uttarakhand region of NW region has been
used to estimate earthquake source parameters. This data
set includes two moderate earthquakes namely the
Uttarkashi and the Chamoli earthquakes recorded by strong
motion network (SMA) and one small earthquake occurred
at Bhagwanpur near Roorkee. This small earthquake was
recorded at seismological laboratory, IIT Roorkee by both
accelerograph and seismograph. The remaining 13
earthquakes were recorded on 12 stations of seismological
network as well as on some of the strong motion stations of
mission mode network.

Source
Parameters
Earthquake

of

the

(7)

This leads to the approximation of

thorough the value
of accelerations constant spectral level
as:
(9)
The value of corner frequency has been iteratively changed
to allow a best fit of the adopted Brunes model8,9 in the
acceleration spectra. For the Uttarkashi earthquakes, figure
2 show examples of the SH components of the rotated
acceleration time histories along with the acceleration and
the displacement spectra and the fitted Brunes model at
Purola stations.

Uttarkashi

The strong motion records of the Uttarkashi earthquake of

1991 obtained from 13 strong motion stations have been
analyzed to estimate the source parameters. Different
hypocenter parameters of the Uttarkashi earthquake have
been reported by various agencies. In the present study the
hypocenter parameters estimated by India Meteorological
Department (IMD) have been considered because these
parameters have been computed using the phase data
obtained from 26 seismological stations operated at local
and regional distances23 and are listed in table 3.

The computed values of spectral and source parameters for

the Uttarkashi earthquake at different stations are listed in
table 4. The seismic moment for Uttarkashi earthquake is
(1.10.22) x1019Nm. The estimated stress drop is about

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Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

5.260.59 MPa, radius of fault is 9.70.2 km. The fmax

values vary from 4.0 to 12.5 with average value around 7
Hz. Global CMT catalog reported seismic moment
1.77x1019Nm and the corner frequency derived from this
and observed AIFL is 0.09 Hz and stress drop of 4.05 MPa.

events fall either to the north of the MCT or coincide with

the trace of the MCT. The remaining one event is located in
the Ganga in deep to the south of the MBT. This event was
recorded on both the digital seismograph and digital strong
motion accelerograph placed in Seismological Observatory
of the IIT Roorkee. This event has occurred very close to
the Roorkee at an epicentral distance of about 8 km and at a
depth of about 20 km.

Source Parameters of the Chamoli Earthquake

The Chamoli earthquake of 1999 occurred in Garhwal
Himalaya region that lies in the Lesser Himalaya between
Munsiari and North Almora Thrust and was recorded on 11
strong motion stations. The hypocenter parameters as
reported by USGS, India Meteorological Department
(IMD) and Department of Earthquake Engineering (DEQ)
are given in table 5.

Some of the typical examples of the SH components of the

rotated time series of the local earthquakes (at Srikot,
Chamoli and Vinakkhal stations) along with their
acceleration spectra, displacement spectra and fitted
Brunes model are shown in figures 4, 5 and 6.
The spectral parameters and source parameters of the 14
local events are listed in table 7. The source parameters
include seismic moment, stress drop and source radius. The
values of these source parameters range from 4.001013Nm
to 1.061018Nm for seismic moments, 2.59 MPa to 8.34
MPa for stress drops, 200.0 m to 894.3 m for source radii.
The average values of fmax for these events vary from 6.8
Hz to 13.3 Hz. These estimated values of source parameters
by and large agrees to the reported values of source
parameters of events in the magnitude range from 3 to 5.1

The estimation of source parameters of the Chamoli

earthquake has been carried out using the processed strong
motion data in the form of digital acceleration time
histories available in the Department of Earthquake
Engineering, IIT Roorkee. For the Chamoli earthquake, the
corner frequencies at different stations are smaller than the
low cut frequencies 0.17Hz to 0.20Hz11 of band pass filter
applied during the data processing. In view of this, the
same procedure of analysis as adopted for the Uttarkashi
earthquake has been applied for the Chamoli earthquake.
For the Chamoli earthquake, typical example of SH
components of the rotated acceleration time histories
obtained at Gopeshwar station along with their acceleration
and displacement spectra and the fitted Brunes model are
displayed in figure 3.

Results and Discussion

The estimated source parameters of the Uttarkashi and the
Chamoli earthquakes along with the source parameters of
14 local events are listed in table 7. Plots have been
prepared to study the relationships among these parameters
and are described below:

Computed values of source parameters of the Chamolii

earthquake at different stations are listed in table 6. The
seismic moment for Chamoli earthquake is (4.70.72) x
1018Nm. The estimated stress drop about 5.320.696 MPa,
radius of fault is 7.30.11 km. The fmax for Chamoli
earthquake varies from 2.2 Hz to 10 Hz with average value
around 5 Hz. Global CMT catalog reported seismic
moment 7.77x1018Nm and the corner frequency derived
from this and observed AIFL is 0.107 Hz and stress drop of
2.46 MPa.

Stress Drop: The results listed in table 7 demonstrate that

the stress drops of 16 small to moderate sized earthquakes
(3.1<Mw<6.7) vary between 2.59 MPa to 8.34 MPa with an
average stress drop of 5.91 MPa with a standard deviation
of 1.92 MPa. Earlier study on the estimate of stress drops
for the Garhwal Himalaya has brought out that stress drop
varied from <0.1 MPa to 3.8 MPa based on P-wave spectra
of 18 local events (1.4ML4.2)45 and it was inferred that
low stress drop events occur at shallow depths because the
crust has low strength to withstand accumulated strain
energy45. Stress drops of 13 local events (1.35ML4.85)
estimated from S-wave spectra varied from less than 0.1
MPa to 23.3 MPa31. For 15 local events (2.44ML3.32)
the estimated stress drops lie between 0.297 MPa and 8.342
MPa45.
Table 1
Velocity model adopted to locate the events
(EQ: 2009-33)13

Source Parameters of Local Events

Thirteen local events that occurred in the Uttarakhand
region of NW Himalaya have been selected for the purpose
of estimating their source parameters. These events were
selected because they were recorded by both the 12-station
telemetry network deployed in the Uttarakhand region of
NW Himalaya as well as on some of the strong motion
stations deployed in the Uttarakhand region of NW
Himalaya. The digital data obtained from these two types
of instruments has been used to compute the source
parameters. The magnitudes of these events fall in the
range from 3.1 to 4.7. The locations of these events as
listed in table 3 are plotted on the map in figure 1.

P-Wave velocity
(km/s)
3.00
5.20
6.00
7.91

Epicentres of 6 events are located in the Lesser Himalaya

between the MBT and the MCT and the epicentres of 7

31

Depth to the top of the layer

(km)
0.0
1.0
15.0
46.0

Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Table 2
Hypocenters parameters and magnitudes of located earthquakes

S.N.

Origion
Time
( GMT)

Lat.
o
N

Long.
o
E

Depth
km

Mw

RMS
(s)

20051214
07:09:48.0

30.90

79.300

25.7

4.7

0.6

20070722
23:02:12.0

31.200

78.200

12.9

4.4

0.3

20080322
14:36:44.1

29.578

80.207

16.7

3.1

20080819
10:54:26.8

29.981

80.099

17.3

20080904
12:53:21.0

30.100

80.400

20090111
10:33:42.7

29.851

20090214
16:27:49.1

ERH
(km)

ERZ
(km)

No.
of
Stations

8.5

13

3.0

1.7

0.2

9.1

2.8

11

4.3

0.4

3.6

2.4

16

39.3

4.6

0.4

4.3

13.2

19

80.211

16.0

3.7

0.5

7.0

9.7

10

29.969

80.212

12.0

3.6

0.5

7.3

7.4

12

20090225
4:04:21.0

30.600

79.300

39.3

3.6

0.3

3.6

3.0

12

20090318
11:22:42.2

30.907

78.267

16.8

3.6

0.2

4.7

2.2

13

10

20090515
18:39:21.8

30.495

79.302

18.9

4.1

0.5

6.1

3.7

13

11

20090827
16:54:15.0

30.010

79.976

15.0

3.9

0.3

2.3

2.6

13

12

20090921
09:43:52.3

30.837

78.984

53.3

4.7

0.2

2.1

2.5

24

13

20091003
05:20:56.2

29.911

79.713

25.5

4.3

0.8

16.1

8.8

13

4.5

Table 3
Hypocenter parameters of the Uttarkashi Earthquake of Oct. 20, 199123
Origion Time
Latitude
Longitude
Depth of focus
Magnitude

21:23:16.45 GMT on Oct. 19, 1991

30.75 N
78.86 E
12 km.
6.6 mb (IMD) 6.8 Mw (GCMT)

32

Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Table 4
Spectral parameters and source parameters of the Uttarkashi earthquake

STN

fc (Hz)

Almora
Barkot
Bhatwari
Ghansiali
Karnprayag
Kosani
Koteshwar
Koti
Purola
Rudraprayag
Srinagar
Tehri
Uttarkashi
Average

0.114
0.116
0.113
0.118
0.119
0.111
0.118
0.114
0.115
0.115
0.112
0.112
0.117
0.115

0.003

fmax
(Hz)
4.5
7.0
4.0
5.5
7.5
7.5
8.9
5.0
5.3
9.5
12.5
7.5
5.5
6.9

2.4

M0(Nm)

Mw

R (km)

9.944x1018
1.208x1019
1.023x1019
9.203x1018
1.074x1019
1.241x1019
1.257x1019
1.149x1019
1.271x1019
8.254x1018
1.028x1019
1.289x1019
1.071x1019
(1.10.122)
x1019

6.7
6.7
6.7
6.6
6.7
6.7
6.7
6.7
6.7
6.6
6.7
6.7
6.7
6.7

0.03

9.8
9.6
9.9
9.5
9.4
10.1
9.5
9.8
9.7
9.7
10.0
10.0
9.5
9.7

0.2

(MPa)
4.63
5.92
4.64
4.75
5.68
5.33
6.49
5.35
6.07
3.94
4.54
5.69
5.39
5.26

0.59

Table 5
Hypocenter parameters of the Chamoli Earthquake of March 28, 1999
Source

Date

USGS
28-03-1999
IMD
28-03-1999
DEQ
28-03-1999
Mw=6.5 Global CMT catalog.

Origion Time
(GMT)
19:05:12.00
19:05:10.00
19:05:11.25

Latitude

Longitude

3049.20N
3017.82N
3026.00N

7928.80E
7933.84E
7928.00E

Depth
(km)
15.0
21.0
18.0

Magnitude
6.3 mb
6.8 mb
6.7 mb

Table 6
Spectral parameters and source parameters of Chamoli earthquake
Station
Gopeshwar

fc
(Hz)
0.161

fmax
(Hz)
2.2

6.4

R
(km)
7.4

(MPa)
5.03

M0
(Nm)
4.7x1018

Mw

18

Joshimath
Ukhimath
Ghansiali

0.165
0.168
0.162

2.7
4
7.5

4.3x10
3.2x1018
5.7x1018

6.4
6.3
6.5

7.2
7.1
7.4

5.04
3.96
6.29

Almora
Tehri
Lansdowne
Uttarkashi
Chinaylisaur
Barkot
Roorkee
Average

0.166
0.162
0.164
0.163
0.162
0.168
0.165
0.164

0.0024

5
4.2
10
5.8
5.6
7.5
4.5
5.4

2.3

4.4x1018
5.3x1018
5.4x1018
5.2x1018
4.6x1018
4.4x1018
4.0x1018
(4.70.72)
x1018

6.4
6.5
6.5
6.5
6.4
6.4
6.4
6.4

0.05

7.2
7.4
7.3
7.3
7.4
7.1
7.2
7.3

0.11

5.21
5.85
6.22
5.81
5.04
5.39
4.65
5.32

0.696

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Table 7
Source Parameters of earthquakes in Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya

S.N.

Date

fc
(Hz)

fmax
(Hz)

19911020

0.115

19990329

0.164

Magnitude
(Mw)

Stress Drop
(MPa)

Radius
R (m)

6.9

Moment
(M0)
Nm
1.101019

6.7

5.26

9700

5.4

4.70 1018

6.4

5.32

7300

18

4.7

6.35

894.3

20051214

1.3

6.8

1.06 10

20070609

4.6

8.5

1.201014

3.4

2.59

300.0

15

4.4
3.1
4.3
4.6
3.7
3.6
3.6
3.6
4.1
3.9
4.7
4.3

4.30
4.40
7.32
8.34
4.30
6.36
8.31
2.80
5.23
7.69
7.63
8.28

723.9
200.0
250.7
757.2
348.6
270.6
227.9
295.1
498.3
339.0
850.0
536.1

5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

20070722
20080322
20080819
20080904
20090111
20090214
20090225
20090318
20090515
20090827
20090921
20091003

1.8
8.0
5.0
1.6
3.6
4.4
5.2
3.8
2.4
3.5
1.4
2.2

8.0
10.0
11.0
8.3
7.1
11.1
13.3
10.4
11.5
10.2
9.1
8.2

3.7310
4.001013
2.60 1015
8.471015
4.241014
2.851014
2.251014
1.61 1014
1.471015
6.841014
1.071016
2.911015

Figure 1: Map showing the locations of the instruments of three networks and epicenters of earthquakes (blue circles)
with magnitudes (Mw-this study). Tectonic features like main boundary thrust (MBT), the main central thrust
(MCT), main frontal thrust (MFT) and regional tectonic features such as South Almora Thrust (SAT), North Almora
Thrust (NAT), Moradabad fault (MT), great boundary fault (GBF) along with local tectonic features like Alaknanda
fault (AF), Ramgarh thrust (RT) and Martoli thrust (MT) are also shown18. Black boundary refers to Uttarakhand
region of NW Himalaya.

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Figure 2: An example of SH component of acceleration time history of Uttarkashi earthquake recorded at

Purola station, the acceleration and displament spectra along with fitted source model.

Figure 3: SH component of acceleration time history of Chamoli earthquake recorded at

Gopeshwar station, acceleration and displament spectra along with the fitted Brunes model
also shown.

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Figure 4: An example of SH-component of velocity time history of 18/03/2009 earthquake

recorded at Srikot station of Tehri network, the acceleration and displament spectra along with
fitted source model.

Figure 5: An example of SH-component acceleration time history of 15/05/2009 earthquake

recorded at Chamoli station, acceleration and displament spectra along with the fitted
Brunes model.

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Figure 6: Plot showing SH-component of velocity time history of 21/09/2009 earthquake recorded at Vinakkhal
station of Tehri network, acceleration and displament spectra along with the fitted Brunes model.

Figure 7: Plot of seismic moment versus source radius for the 16 events. The lines corresponding to static stress drops
of 1.0 MPa, 6.0 MPa and 10.0 MPa are also shown in the plot.

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

Anderson4,5 related this high-cut fall off to near surface
attenuation but a recent study by Purvance and Anderson43
supports that the high-cut fall off is primarily controlled by
source characteristics as opposed to propagation path
effects. Kumar et al29,30 inferred that fmax is controlled by
source process and seems to be independent ofepicentral
distance and focal depth.

In the present study, the estimated values of stressdrops for

the Uttarkashi and the Chamoli earthquakes are 5.26 MPa
and 5.32 MPa which by and large agree with the values of
5.3 MPa and 6.5 MPa estimated from strong motion data35.
Based on various observations of stress drops it seems that
stress drops computed using strong motion data show less
scatter as compared to those obtained from local earthquake
data. It can be inferred that for estimation of strong ground
motion for moderate sized earthquakes, the stress drop now
commonly stated as stress parameter should be around 6.0
MPa for the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya.

Figure 9 is showing the variation of fmax with seismic

moment, it shows decrease of fmax with increasing seismic
moment that shows its dependence to source process. A
weak dependence of fmax on source size has been reported
for California earthquakes and Japanese earthquakes.3

Seismic moment vs source radius: The plot in figure 7

shows the variation of source radius with seismic moment.
It is clear from the plot that for events above magnitude 4.0
the relationship between source radius and seismic moment
is linear. In this figure the lines corresponding to stress
drop of 1.0 MPa, 6.0 MPa and 10.0 MPa are also shown.
As stated above, the average stress drop for the events
occurring in the Uttarakhand region NW Himalaya is
around 6.0 MPa, however, range of the stress drop lies
between 2.6 MPaand 8.3 MPa.

Figure 10 shows the variation of fmax with seismic moment

for events occurring in the different ranges of magnitudes2.
The values of fmax, obtained in the present study are plotted
by magenta dots and show that the values are by and large
in agreement with those reported from various studies.
However, on close examination it appears that they follow
the linear trend obtained for San Fernando earthquakes
(1.3< M<3.0).

Seismic moment vs corner frequency: Figure 8 depicts a

plot between the corner frequency and seismic moment. A
linear regression between these two parameters has given
the following relation:

Conclusion
For the Uttarakhand region of NW Himalaya, source
parameters of small and moderate sized earthquakes
(3.1Mw6.7) including the Uttarkashi earthquake and the
Chamoli earthquake have been estimated. For the
Uttarkashi earthquake the estimated values of seismic
moment, source radius and stress drop are: (1.10.22) x
1019Nm, 9.70.2 km, 5.260.59 MPa respectively. The fmax
values at thirteen sites vary from 4.0 Hz to 12.5 Hz with
average value of 7 Hz. The stress drop of the order of 6.0
MPa has been estimated for the Uttarkashi earthquake by
Sriram and Khatri.46

M0 (Nm) = 3.0 x 1016fc(Hz)-2.98

which implies M0 fc3 = 3.0 x 1016Nm*Hz3=3.0 x 1016
Nm/s3.
Similar scaling relations have been reported in the literature
for some of the seismically active regions. Some of the
typical relations are given below:

For the Chamoli earthquake, the estimated values of

seismic moment, source radius and average stress drop are:
(4.70.72) x 1018Nm, 7.30.11 km and 5.320.696 MPa
respectively. The fmax values vary from 2.2 Hz to 10 Hz
with average value around 5 Hz.

For Himalayan Region, India35,

Mo fc3 =1.7 x 1016 Nm/s3
For Kanto Basin, Japan52,

Seismic moments of 14 local events (3.1Mw4.7) range

from 4.01013Nm to 1.061018Nm and their average stress
drops vary from 2.59 MPa to 8.34 MPa. The average values
of fmax for these sites vary from 6.8 Hz to 13.3 Hz. Based
on the data set of 16 events (3.1 Mw6.7), the stress drop
for this region is 5.911.92 MPa which by and large agrees
with the earlier reported stress drop of 5.63.6 MPa for this
region35. Using the data set of 16 events, a scaling law,
M0(Nm) = 3.0x1016fc-2.98 has been developed for the region.
From the plot between seismic moment and fmax, the values
of fmax seem to be dependent on the source size and vary
from 4 Hz to 18 Hz at various sites falling in the
Uttarakhand region. From the study of stress drops of
earthquakes using global data, the average stress drops of
3.0 MPa for interplate, 10.0 MPa for intra-plate and 6.0
MPa for average earthquakes have been estimated24.

Mo fc3 = (2.5-3.0) x 1016 Nm/s3

For South-central Alaska12,
Mo fc3 = 2.09 x 1016 Nm/s3
fmax: fmax is an important parameter that controls the level
of strong ground motion. There are primarily two schools
of thoughts that explain the possible reasons for the
observed fmax. First school of thought has attributed fmax to
site effects20 whereas second school of thought has ascribed
fmax to source effect.1,14,15,40-42,49,50,53 However, Aki and
Irikura3 based on several reported studies concluded that
occurrence of fmax is attributed to both site and source
effects. Earlier studies by Anderson and Hough6,

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Disaster Advances

Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

this work. The authors are profusely thankful to Ministry of
Earth Sciences (MoES), Tehri Hydro Development
Corporation (THDC) and Department of Earthquake
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee for
funding projects under which data was collected.

Figure 8: Plot between corner frequency and seismic

moment for earthquakes occurred in the Uttarakhand
region of NW Himalaya

Figure 10: Plot between fmax and seismic moment. The

values of fmax obtained from the Uttarakhand region of
NW Himalaya (mangenta) are overlain on results of fmax
from various studies compiled by Aki2.

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Figure 9: Plot between seismic moment and fmax for

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Vol. 7 (9) September 2014

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