N. Purnachandra Rao

Investigations of continued reservoir triggered seismicity at Koyna, India

Abstract Koyna, located in the Deccan Volcanic Province in western India, is the most significant site of reservoir triggered seismicity (RTS) globally. The largest RTS event of M 6.3 occurred here on December 10, 1967. RTS at Koyna has continued. This includes 22 M≥5.0 and thousands of smaller events over the past 50 years. The annual loading and unloading cycles of the Koyna Reservoir and the nearby Warna Reservoir influence RTS. Koyna provides an excellent natural laboratory to comprehend the mechanism of RTS because earthquakes here occur in a small area, mostly at depths of 2–7 km, which are accessible for monitoring. A deep borehole laboratory is therefore planned to study earthquakes in the near-field to understand their genesis, especially in an RTS environment. Initially, several geophysical investigations were carried out to characterize the seismic zone, including 5000 line kilometres of airborne gravity gradiometry and magnetic surveys, high-quality magnetotelluric data from 100 stations, airborne LiDAR surveys over 1064 km2, drilling of 8 boreholes of approximately 1500 m depth and geophysical logging. To improve the earthquake locations a unique network of borehole seismometers was installed in six of these boreholes. These results, along with a pilot borehole drilling plan, are presented here.

The 14 April 2012 Koyna Earthquake of Mw 4.8: insights into active tectonics of the Koyna region

The 14 April 2012 earthquake of Mw 4.8 is the best monitored event in the Koyna region, a globally significant site of reservoir triggered seismicity in western India. Hence, investigation of this event assumes great importance, also considering its epicentral location close to that of the 1967 Koyna earthquake of M 6.3, the world’s largest reservoir triggered earthquake. Inversion of P-wave amplitude data along with the first motion polarities at 30 digital seismic stations provides a well-constrained strike-slip type focal mechanism solution, similar to that of the 1967 earthquake. The mechanism is further confirmed by moment tensor inversion of 3-component waveform data recorded at the three nearest broadband stations. The depth distribution of the aftershocks clearly delineates a NNE-SSW trending fault plane dipping about 78° to the WNW and coinciding with the trend of the Donachiwada fault, as well as the left-lateral fault plane of the focal mechanism solution obtained. The precise location, focal mechanism and the seismicity distribution from our dense network indicate that the activity in the Koyna region is mainly controlled by the NNE-SSW trending Donachiwada (D) fault zone rather than the Koyna River Fault Zone (KRFZ) on the west as suggested previously.

Imaging the lithospheric structure beneath the Indian continent

We present a high-resolution 3-D lithospheric model of the Indian plate region down to 300 km depth, obtained by inverting a new massive database of surface wave observations, using classical tomographic methods. Data are collected from more than 550 seismic broadband stations spanning the Indian subcontinent and surrounding regions. The Rayleigh wave dispersion measurements along ~14,000 paths are made in a broad frequency range (16–250 s). Our regionalized surface wave (group and phase) dispersion data are inverted at depth in two steps: first an isotropic inversion and next an anisotropic inversion of the phase velocity including the SV wave velocity and azimuthal anisotropy, based on the perturbation theory. We are able to recover most of the known geological structures in the region, such as the slow velocities associated with the thick crust in the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau and the fast velocities associated with the Indian Precambrian shield. Our estimates of the depth to the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere boundary (LAB) derived from seismic velocity Vsv reductions at depth reveal large variations (120–250 km) beneath the different cratonic blocks. The lithospheric thickness is ~120 km in the eastern Dharwar, ~160 km in the western Dharwar, ~140–200 km in Bastar, and ~160–200 km in the Singhbhum Craton. The thickest (200–250 km) cratonic roots are present beneath central India. A low velocity layer associated with the midlithospheric discontinuity is present when the root of the lithosphere is deep.

Earthquake focal mechanism studies in Koyna-Warna region in the last five decades — Current understanding on tectonics and seismogenesis

On 10th December 1967, the world’s largest reservoir triggered seismic (RTS) event of magnitude 6.3 shook the Koyna region, the prime site of RTS globally. Ever since, several studies have attempted to infer the seismotectonics and to comprehend the actual causative mechanism of triggered seismicity in this region. Initial studies, including those of the 1967 Koyna main shock and its aftershocks, were based on the conventional P wave polarity or the first motion approach. These studies provided the first ever understanding of a predominantly strike-slip environment in the Koyna region, concurrent with the direction of ambient stress field due to the Indian plate motion. Subsequent studies pointed to a normal faulting environment in theWarna region further south, subsequent to impoundment later in 1985. A few studies did report solutions based on composite focal mechanisms, which however, only represent the average picture of the region. More recent studies based on modelling of seismic broadband waveform data provided more accurate focal mechanisms with unprecedented location accuracies including focal depths. A catalog of 50 focal mechanism solutions is now available for the earthquakes of magnitude ∼4 and larger that occurred during the last 50 years, which has paved way for a clear understanding of the stress field and the causative model of seismogenesis in this active intra-plate seismic RTS zone in western India. Based on stress inversion using this catalog, a new tectonic model depicting a periodically varying stress field and hence faulting mechanism has been inferred.

Long-term hydrochemical earthquake precursor studies at the Koyna-Warna reservoir site in western India

Koyna-Warna region of western India is an active seismic zone due to the Reservoir Triggered Seismicity (RTS). Earthquake precursor studies are carried out monitoring hydrochemical and stable isotope signatures in the groundwater from 15 bore wells since January 2005, for more than 12 years (January 2005 to February 2017). Depth of these boreholes ranges from 100 to 250 m. Cyclic or temporal variation in hydrochemistry is observed in few sensitive wells in Koyna region. The Govare well in Koyna is found to be most sensitive and the observed hydrochemical cycle is closely associated with local earthquakes of M > 5. The earthquakes M <5 occurring either in Warna cluster or close to the observation wells, did not generate hydrochemical precursory changes. The increase in hydrochemistry is hypothesized as mixing of two aquifer waters with different hydrochemistry. It is noted that a precursory hydrochemical cycle is observed during first quarter of 2015, but no earthquake M > 5.0 occurred till date. The cyclic changes in hydrochemistry, however, indicate on-going earthquake processes and an impending earthquake of M > 5 in the region.