Earthquake occurrence processes in the Indo-Burmese wedge and Sagaing fault region

Abstract

Earthquakes in the Indo-Burmese wedge and Sagaing fault regions occur in response to the partitioning of the India–Sunda motion along these two distinct boundaries. Under the accretionary wedge of the Indo-Burmese arc, majority of the earthquakes occur in the depth range of 30–60 km and define an eastward gently dipping seismicity trend surface that coincides with the Indian slab. The dip of the slab steepens in the east direction and earthquakes occur down to a depth of 150 km, though the slab can be traced up to the 660 km discontinuity. Although these features are similar to a subduction zone, the nature of the earthquakes and our analysis of their focal mechanisms suggest that these earthquakes are of intra-slab type which occur on steep plane within the Indian plate and the sense of motion implies a northward relative motion with respect to the Sunda plate. Thus these earthquakes and the stress state do not support active subduction across the Indo-Burmese arc which is also consistent with the relative motion of India–Sunda plates. The absence of inter-plate earthquakes, lack of evidence of the occurrence of great earthquakes in the historical records and non-seismogenic nature of the plate interface under the accretionary wedge suggest that seismic hazard due to earthquakes along the plate boundary may be relatively low. However, major intra-slab earthquakes at shallow and intermediate depths may still cause damage in the sediment filled valley regions of Manipur and Cachar in India and Chittagong and Sylhet regions of Bangladesh. In the Sagaing fault region, earthquakes occur through dextral strike slip motion along the north–south oriented plane and the stress state is consistent with the plate motion across the Sagaing fault.