Assessment of Seismicity Parameters and Return Period of Earthquakes for the Kerman region

As Iran is located in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, a vast area of Iran is considered highly prone to earthquakes. Significant seismotectonic differences exist between its various regions. The study area, the Kerman region, is mostly located in the Central-East Iran seismotectonic zone. The seismic activity in Central-East Iran differs significantly, warranting separate research on this province. Due to the geological characteristics, the region's seismic background is greatly influenced by active faults. To investigate the seismicity and calculate seismic parameters of the study area, a complete and uniform catalog from different sources including; the International Seismological Centre (ISC), United States Geological Survey (USGS), Global Centroid-Moment-Tensor (G-CMT), Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC), International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), and some published works were collected and provided. After catalog declustering, main seismicity parameters including the annual rate of occurrence (λ), the value of b, and the maximum expected earthquake (Mmax) for the study area were calculated by using the Kijko and Sellevoll method. The b-value equals 0.91, and the mean annual occurrence rate of earthquakes is 8.07 for the magnitudes of 2.9 and higher. The results indicate the region's relatively high seismic activity.

Assessment of Seismicity Parameters and Return Period of Earthquakes for the Kerman region Keywords:

mean annual occurrence rate , Earthquake catalog , Kerman region , Kijko and Sellevoll method , Seismicity parameters