Application of Omori’s Decay Law to the 2001 Bhuj Aftershock Sequence for Kachchh Region of Western India

Parul C. Trivedi

India Meteorological Department, Ahmedabad, India.

DOI: 10.4236/ojer.2015.43009                

Abstract

In the present study, the temporal behavior of 2001 Bhuj aftershock sequence in Kachchh region of western peninsular India is studied by the modified Omori law. The Omori law parameters p, c and K are determined with the standard errors by the maximum likelihood estimates using ZMAP algorithm in MatLab environment. The entire aftershock sequence is analyzed by diving it into three separate series with respect to time to weigh up the bigger earthquake of magnitude M 5.7 occurring on March 7, 2006 at Gedi fault. This study helps to understand the cumulative effect of the aftershocks generated by this bigger earthquake of the mainshock sequence. The results of this analysis are discussed with other studies of the different earthquake sequence for the different parts of the world and suggest that all the three series of Bhuj aftershock sequence follow the Omori relation. Values of parameter p vary significantly from series 1 to series 3, i.e., p-value varies significantly with time. Similarly, other two Omori law parameters K and c are also found to change significantly with time. These parameters are useful to describe temporal behavior of aftershocks and to forecast aftershock activity in time domain. Aftershock decay rate provides insight into stress release processes after the mainshock, thus helping to understand the heterogeneity of the fault zone properties and evaluate time-dependent seismic hazard analysis over the region.

Keywords

Omori Decay Law, Aftershock Activity, p-Value, Bhuj Earthquake

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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