Teleseismic moment tensors of the 5 April 2017, Mw6.1, Fariman, northeast Iran, earthquake

Abstract

AbstractOn 5 April 2017, an Mw6.1 earthquake occurred about 50\xa0km NE of the city of Fariman, northeast Iran. Several hundreds of aftershocks including two M\u2009>\u20095 events followed the main shock. The quake struck numerous towns and villages across the region, killed one person, and injured tens of people. Many schools and universities were evacuated around the epicentral area, and a lot of people left their residences for a few days. The northeastward motion of the central Iran toward Eurasia influences the epicentral region. Regional movements occur by shortening on the northwest-trending reverse faults. We studied teleseismic source parameters of this earthquake by applying different moment tensor decomposition methods including grid search for the nodal planes of the best double couple; linear inversion for a deviatoric moment tensor; grid search for the best double-couple moment tensor; grid search for the best deviatoric moment tensor; and grid search for the best full moment. Based on the moment tensors, the event occurred on a reverse fault following the regional compressional motion. The results of this study will provide useful information for future regional seismotectonic investigations and are of significant use for applications such as regional seismic hazard evaluations.\n