Fractal Dimensions of Blocks Using a Box-counting Technique for the 2001 Bhuj Earthquake, Gujarat, India

Several destructive earthquakes have occurred in the Kachchh region of Gujarat during the past two centuries, among them Allah Bund earthquake (M7.8) in 1819, Anjar earthquake (M6) in 1956 and the recent Bhuj earthquake (M7.6) in 2001. The Anjar earthquake was on KMF (Kachchh Mainland Fault) and the recent Bhuj events were caused by a hidden fault north of KMF. The present study discusses the fractal analysis of tectonics governing seismic activity in the region. The region has been divided into five blocks and the fractal dimension of each block has been calculated using the box-counting technique. The results show significantly low value of fractal dimension of the Kachchh rift block consisting of the KMF compared to the other surrounding blocks, which also contain faults and rifts of higher fractal dimension. This indicates that the cause of earthquakes in this block may be asperities and barriers. However, the predominance of aftershocks over foreshocks signifies that barriers may be the main cause. The other results, such as the lower value of dimension of fault clustering show that the Kachchh rift block has faults which are distributed in a clustered manner. In this context, the seismicity of this block seems to be high.