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Body wave attenuation characteristics in the crust of Alborz region and North Central Iran

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Abstract

Attenuation of P and S waves has been investigated in Alborz and north central part of Iran using the data recorded by two permanent and one temporary networks during October 20, 2009, to December 22, 2010. The dataset consists of 14,000 waveforms from 380 local earthquakes (2 < M L < 5.6). The extended coda normalization method (CNM) was used to estimate quality factor of P (Q P) and S waves (Q S) at seven frequency bands (0.375, 0.75, 1.5, 3, 6, 12, 24 Hz). The Q P and Q S values have been estimated at lapse times from 40 to 100 s. It has been observed that the estimated values of Q P and Q S are time independent; therefore, the mean values of Q P and Q S at different lapse times have been considered. The frequency dependence of quality factor was determined by using a power-law relationship. The frequency-dependent relationship for Q P was estimated in the form of (62 ± 7)f (1.03 ± 0.07) and (48 ± 5)f (0.95 ± 0.07) in Alborz region and North Central Iran, respectively. These relations for Q S for Alborz region and North Central Iran have estimated as (83 ± 8)f (0.99 ± 0.07) and (68 ± 5)f (0.96 ± 0.05), respectively. The observed low Q values could be the results of thermoelastic effects and/or existing fracture. The estimated frequency-dependent relationships are comparable with tectonically active regions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) for supporting this research work (Research Project Number 447-5520). We also wish to thank the Iranian National Broadband Seismic Network of IIEES and Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC) for providing the required waveforms for this study. MF thanks Vahidoddin Fattahpour for his grammatical assistance. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Iran

    M. Farrokhi

  2. Seismology Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran

    H. Hamzehloo

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Farrokhi, M., Hamzehloo, H. Body wave attenuation characteristics in the crust of Alborz region and North Central Iran. J Seismol 21, 631–646 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-016-9624-2

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