Strain rate and stress fields in the West and South Lut block, Iran: Insights from the inversion of focal mechanism and geodetic data

Abstract

The active tectonic deformation and hazardous earthquakes in the south and west of the Lut block have been investigated for a long time. In this study, we compute the geodetic and seismic strain rates using focal mechanism data from the Harvard CMT catalogue and various other sources including the published GPS velocities. Moreover, we also perform Focal Mechanism Stress Inversion (FMSI) to deduce a stress model for the region. Our study shows an expected correlation between the stress orientations, seismic and geodetic strain rates. Our results show that the south and west of the Lut block is generally exposed as a compressional strike-slip tectonic regime. The tectonic convergence in this area is taken up not only by motions along and across the faults but also by the rotation of those blocks which bounded by these faults. The maximum amount of rotation rate is observed where there are the main right lateral strike slip fault systems such as Sabzevaran, Gowk, Nayband, Bam, Kuhbanan, and Kahurak. The orientation of the mean stress direction, obtained from the FMSI results in the west and south of the Lut block, is approximated ~N19 E. In this area, faults are almost oblique relative to the tectonic motion direction. Moreover, there are right-lateral and left-lateral shears, in addition to the dip movements in different parts of the south and west of the Lut block. Our analyses show three main categories of the stress regimes including strike-slip faulting (43.2%), thrust faulting (38.6%), and unknown or oblique faulting (18.2%). We also calculated seismic and geodetic moment rates for this area, which indicate the seismic moment rate is relatively high between Bam and Shahdad where there are some segments of the Gowk fault.