Earthquake Summary Magnitude: 7.

2 Date-Time: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 20:23:23 UTC Region: SOUTHWESTERN PAKISTAN Tectonic Summary 1. This major earthquake occurred as a result of normal faulting within the lithosphere of the subducted Arabian plate. (i.e.) it is the collision between Oceanic and continental plates. 2. The present-day tectonic environment of Pakistan is determined by the motions of the Arabian and Indian plates north-northeast with respect to the Eurasian plate at velocities of 35 and 40 mm/y at the longitude of this earthquake. 3. Arabian-plate lithosphere (Oceanic Plate) is subducted beneath the Eurasia plate (Continental plate) at the Makran coast of Pakistan and Iran, and becomes progressively deeper to the north. 4. The subducted Arabian plate is known to be seismically active to depths of about 160 km. 5. Several earthquakes have occurred within this slab in the region of today's event over the past 30 years, including a magnitude 6.7 shock two hundred kilometers to the southwest in 1983. Depth: 68 km (42.3 miles) set by location program Shallow earthquakes are between 0 km and 70 km in deep. Intermediate earthquakes, normally occur at the depth of 70 - 300 km and deep seated earthquakes occur at a depth of 300 - 700 km. In general, the term "deep-focus earthquakes" is applied to earthquakes deeper than 70 km. 1. Based on the above definition the earthquake occurred in South west of Pakistan is Shallow earthquake. 2. Since it is a shallow earthquake there must be more surface wave, which has devastating potential. Strike The strike is an angle used to specify the orientation of the fault and measured clockwise from north. For example, a strike of 0 or 180 indicates a fault that is oriented in a north-south direction. A strike of 90 or 270 indicates east-west oriented structure. For this earthquake from the nodal plane one it is inferred that the value of strike is 78, which means that almost north south direction.
N

78

Dip Dip is the angle that describes the steepness of the fault surface. This angle is measured from Earth's surface, or a plane parallel to Earth's surface. The dip of a horizontal fault is 0, and the dip of a vertical fault is 90. In this case the value of dip is 31o, which means the fault is lesser steep in nature.
Slip

1. 2. 3. 4.

Slip is to describe the direction of motion across the fault. If the hanging wall moves to the right, the slip direction is 0 (Left Lateral Strike Slip). If it moves up, the slip angle is 90 (Reverse). If it moves to the left, the slip angle is 180 (Right Lateral Strike Slip). If it moves down, the slip angle is 270 or -90 (Normal).

In this case the value of slip -60o, means that it 2/3rd of the fault is normal and 1/3rd of the fault is left lateral strike slip fault. Going by predominant factor the fault falls in the category of normal fault. Even though the main plate is subducting beneath the Eurasian plate, at the fault region it is showing divergent nature. Beach Ball Representation ########### ################ ## T ################-#### ###########--------################------------##############----------------############------------------############--------------------##########------------------# #########----------- P ---------# ########-------------------## ######----------------------### -####----------------------#### ---#--------------------##### --###--------------######## ####################### ################### ###########

Faults and Forces The style of faulting is an indicator of rock deformation and reflects the type of forces pushing or pulling on the region. Near Earth's surface, the orientations of these forces are usually oriented such that one is vertical and the other two are horizontal (NS and EW). If the vertical force is the largest, then normal faulting, here in this case the vertical force is more.

Moment Rate Function

Figure 2. Source time function, describing the rate of moment release with time after earthquake origin. From the above diagram, it can be concluded that approximately 1.4e+26 dyne.cm/s was released in approximately three seconds, which shows the earthquake is a fast earthquake, indicates it is a fast earthquake.