Seismic Risk in Alborz: Insights from Geological Moment Rate Estimation and Fault Activity Analysis
Source abstract
Abstract
The Alborz mountain range in northern Iran is part of the active and seismic Alpide belt, where assessing seismic hazards is crucial due to the region’s history of large instrumental earthquakes and destructive seismic background. Moment rate estimation, which quantifies tectonic activity, offers a novel approach to understanding the energy potential of active tectonic regions. In this study, a regional perspective is employed to investigate the maximum horizontal acceleration for Tehran, the major city in Alborz, resulting from the Sorkh-e Hesar and Ghasr-e-Firuzeh faults located approximately 7.5 km southeast of Tehran. These faults have a seismic potential of Mw 6.5 and a gravity of ~0.5723. While previous studies have identified faults in northern Tehran as the greatest seismic risk, our findings suggest otherwise. The calculated geological moment was 5.18218 × 1017 Nm/y, with a seismic moment rate of 1.83375 × 1014 Nm/y, providing valuable insights into fault activity and seismic potential in the study area.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: earthquake and tectonic studies · Earthquake Detection and Analysis · Seismology and Earthquake Studies
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Geology, University of Birjand, Birjand 97174-34765, Iran
Department of Earthquake Research, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman 76169-13439, Iran
Department of Seismotectonics, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Tehran 19537-14453, Iran
Department of Geology, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman 76169-13439, Iran
Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands
References (47)
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