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Afghanistan earthquake 2015 aftershocks analysis for a better understanding of the seismicity behavior for future assessment

  • Research Article - Solid Earth Sciences
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Abstract

Afghanistan has been subjected to many disastrous earthquakes in the past as it is situated in a seismically vigorous region. The converging edge of the Arabian, Indian, and Eurasian plates accounts for the high seismicity of the region. An Mw 7.5 earthquake hit northern areas of Afghanistan along with Pakistan on the October 26, 2015, with its epicenter positioned in the Hindu Kush (HK) region of Afghanistan at 45 km southwest of Jarm. Resulting in 115 deaths and impairment to 7679 buildings, the earthquake was of an intermediate depth (210 km), which was instigated from reverse faulting. In the current investigation, we investigated the instrumental earthquake data acquired from the multiple data sources for the period of ugust 4, 2015 to March 27, 2016 and from the main earthquake catalog; the aftershocks were classified by exploiting Reasenberg’s algorithm. Numerous histograms of time, the hour of the day, depth, and magnitude have been formulated for explaining the disparity of aftershocks. The foremost inconsistency happens within the 3 days after a mainshock of the HK 2015 earthquake, as disclosed by the outcomes. The Gutenberg-Richter law was exploited to analyze the size dissemination of aftershocks, and the observed value of b is 1.02 + / −0.06. In and around the epicenter of the HK 2015 earthquake, for the depiction of the decay proportions of aftershock sequences, Omori-Utsu law was exercised. The “p value,” which is the decay component, is computed to be 1.46 + / −0.08.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this research are obliged to anonymous reviewers and editors for their supportive remarks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Wah Campus, Wah, Pakistan

    Umer Khalil & Ahsen Maqsoom

  2. Department of Cyber Security and Data Science, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Bilal Aslam

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  1. Umer Khalil
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  2. Bilal Aslam
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  3. Ahsen Maqsoom
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Correspondence to Bilal Aslam.

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Technical Editor: Eleftheria Papadimitriou.

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Khalil, U., Aslam, B. & Maqsoom, A. Afghanistan earthquake 2015 aftershocks analysis for a better understanding of the seismicity behavior for future assessment. Acta Geophys. 69, 1189–1197 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-021-00624-3

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