Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

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Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jseaes

The attenuation mechanism of S-waves in the source zone of the 1999

Chamoli earthquake
S. Mukhopadhyay a,, A. Kumar a, A. Garg a, E. Del-Pezzo b, J.R. Kayal c
a

Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India

Instituto Nazionale di Geosica e Vulcanologia, sezione di Napoli Osservatorio Vesuviano, via Diocleziano, 328, 80124 Napoli, Italy
c
School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700016, India
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 April 2013
Received in revised form 22 September 2013
Accepted 4 October 2013
Available online 22 October 2013
Keywords:
MLTWA
Intrinsic attenuation
Scattering attenuation
Chamoli
Himalayas

a b s t r a c t
In the present study the attenuation mechanism of seismic wave energy in and around the source area of
the Chamoli earthquake of 29th March 1999 is estimated using the aftershock data. Most of the analyzed
events are from the vicinity of the Main Central Thrust (MCT), which is a well-dened tectonic disconti1
nuity in the Himalayas. Separation of intrinsic (Q 1
i ) and scattering (Q s ) attenuation coefcient is done
over the frequencies 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 Hz using Multiple Lapse Time Window Analysis (MLTWA) method. It
is observed that S-waves and their coda are primarily attenuated due to scattering attenuation and
seismic albedo is very high at all the frequencies. A comparison of attenuation characteristics obtained
using these aftershock data with those obtained using data of general seismicity of this region reveal that
at lower frequencies both intrinsic and scattering attenuation for Chamoli was much higher compared to
those for Garwhal-Kumaun region using general seismicity data. At higher frequencies intrinsic
attenuation for Chamoli is lower than and scattering attenuation is comparable to those obtained using
general seismicity data of Garwhal-Kumaun region.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The attenuation of short-period S-waves, expressed as the
inverse of the quality factor (Q1), helps in understanding the
physical laws related to the propagation of the elastic energy of
an earthquake through the lithosphere. The knowledge of attenuation properties of high frequency seismic waves is also useful for
estimating ground motion in seismic hazard analysis. Seismic
waves in the Earth attenuate with distance at rates greater than
predicted by geometrical spreading. The contributing factors are
intrinsic attenuation due to the medium anelasticity and scattering
attenuation associated with the inhomogeneities. Knowledge of
1
the relative contributions of scattering (Q 1
s ) and intrinsic (Q i )
attenuation is important for appropriate subsurface material
identication, tectonic interpretations and quantication of the
ground motion (e.g. Hoshiba, 1993; Akinci et al., 1995; Del Pezzo
et al., 1995; Bianco et al., 1999, 2002; Mukhopadhyay et al.,
2006). A strong debate is going on about the relative contribution
of intrinsic and scattering attenuation in coda attenuation ever
since Aki (1969) rst proposed a method of estimation of this
parameter. Although theoretical derivations under the assumption
of isotropic scattering indicate that intrinsic attenuation should be

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 1332 285578; fax: +91 1332 285638.
E-mail address: sagarfes@iitr.ernet.in (S. Mukhopadhyay).
1367-9120/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.10.014

the dominating mechanism, development under the assumption of

nonisotropic scattering and observational data show that in
different regions relative contribution of these two parameters
vary (Hatzidimitriou, 1994; Hoshiba, 1995; Sato and Fehler,
1998; Lacombe et al., 2003; Mukhopadhyay et al., 2006; Del Pezzo
et al., 2006 and the references therein; Mayeda et al., 2008; Badi
et al., 2009).
A number of methods were developed for estimation of intrinsic
1
(Q 1
i ) and scattering (Q s ) attenuation. Some of the most commonly used methods for estimation of relative contribution of
these two parameters in coda attenuation were proposed by Wu
(1985), Zeng (1991), Hoshiba et al. (1991), Fehler et al. (1992),
Mayeda et al. (1992), Wennerberg (1993), Del Pezzo et al. (1995)
and Bianco et al. (2002, 2005) for isotropic scattering and by
Hoshiba (1995), Tramelli et al. (2009), De Siena et al. (2009) and
Mayeda et al. (2008) for nonisotropic scattering. The multiple
scattering models of Gao et al. (1983) and Wu and Aki (1988)
and energy ux model of Frankel and Wennerberg (1987) give
some insight in the physical interpretation of coda wave quality
factor (Qc) and provide methods of separation of Qi and Qs. In this
work Multiple Lapse Time Window Analysis (MLTWA) method
(Hoshiba et al., 1991; Fehler et al., 1992; Mayeda et al., 1992)
was used to estimate relative contribution of intrinsic and
scattering attenuation in the source zone of the 1999 Chamoli
earthquake of mb 6.3 that occurred in the Garwhal Himalayas
(Fig. 1).

S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

447

Fig. 1. (a) Map showing geological and tectonic features of the Himalayas. Inset shows the popular tectonic model of the Himalayas. (b) Map showing seismicity for the past
50 years for earthquakes with magnitude P4.5. Inset shows the study area. The year of occurrence of earthquakes with magnitude greater than 6 are also indicated. (c)
Location of the stations (triangles with station code) and aftershocks (small stars) whose data were used in this study. The main shock is also shown as a big star. (d) EW and
(e) NS cross sections showing the aftershock location in depth. Abbreviations: ITSZ: Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone, MCT: Main Central Thrust, MBT: Main Boundary Thrust, HFT
Himalayan Frontal Thrust, ANF: Alakananda Fault and NAT: North Almora Thrust.

2. Seismotectonic setup of the study area

The seismic activity in the Himalaya is ascribed to the
northward movement of the Indian plate against the Tibet block
of Eurasian plate (Molnar, 1988). This movement is deforming
the rocks and piling them to form the higher Himalayas and making the area prone to seismic activity. Seeber et al. (1981) gave a
steady state tectonic model to explain the rupture in different parts
of the Himalaya in terms of a great detachment surface underlying the lower, higher and the Tethys Himalaya. Ni and Barazangi
(1984) proposed an evolutionary model to explain seismotectonics
of the Himalayas. Both the models suggest that the Main Central
Thrust (MCT) and the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and other
thrusts are all imbrications along a detachment surface and merge
at depth with the low angle northerly dipping detachment surface
(Fig. 1a).
In the Garhwal-Kumaun Himalaya region, three major tectonic
units are separated from each other by the Main Boundary Thrust
(MBT) and the Main Central Thrust (MCT). The outermost sub-

Himalayan Tertiary belt is thrusted over by the Proterozoic-Eocene

sequence of the lesser Himalayas along the MBT. To the south of
this, the steeply north dipping Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) separates this belt from the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains. Besides
these major tectonic structures (MCT, MBT and HFT) there are
numerous local geological structures, such as vertical NNW-SSE
trending Nandaprayag fault, E-W trending Alaknanda fault (ANF)
and northerly dipping MCT splays (Fig. 1b, Valdiya, 1980; Srivastava and Mitra, 1994).
The epicentral area of the Chamoli earthquake lies in the
Garhwal-Kumaun Himalaya (28-30.5 N, 79-82 E) which is a
part of a 700 km long seismic gap, between the rupture zone of
the 1905 Kangra (M  8.0) earthquake and the 1934 Bihar Nepal
(M  8.4) earthquake (Khattri, 1987). Most of the seismic events
in the Garhwal Himalaya region are located close to the MCT zone.
This region has experienced many moderate earthquakes in the
past. The signicant earthquakes (4.5 6 M 6 6.8) that occurred
between 1947 and 1999 in the Chamoli area (between latitude
29.5-31.5N and longitude 78-80E) are shown in Fig. 1b. Two

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S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

recent destructive earthquakes in the area are the 1991 Uttarkashi

earthquake of magnitude 6.7 and the 1999 Chamoli earthquake of
magnitude 6.3. Khattri et al. (1989) have shown that most of the
microearthquakes in this area are conned to the lesser
Himalaya south of the MCT.
Mukhopadhyay and Kayal (2003) carried out local earthquake
tomography of the source zone of the 1999 Chamoli earthquake
using the aftershock data. They found that the main shock occurred
on the Basement Thrust (BT) or the detachment surface and most
of the aftershocks occurred within a subhorizontal zone straddling
the BT. They also found two steeply dipping low velocity zones
(LVZ) branching up from the BT. One of them meets the surface
at the region where MCT is located. The other meets the surface
at the ANF. A small percentage of the aftershocks occurred along
these two LVZs. On the basis of these observations they concluded
that the MCT and ANF are splay branches of the BT. They also
nd that the main shock occurred in a high velocity, high Vp/Vs
zone that is present directly below an anticlinal feature reported
at the surface by Valdiya (1980). The high Vp/Vs zone is in the
source area of the main shock and interpreted by Mukhopadhyay
and Kayal (2003) as a uid-lled fractured medium.

the total energy in a seismogram has to be estimated. This may

give rise to underestimation of total energy, as signicant portion
of the coda part of the seismogram may remain buried in noise.
To avoid this problem Hoshiba et al. (1991), Fehler et al. (1992)
and Mayeda et al. (1992) almost simultaneously proposed a
practical method of estimating Qi and Qs called the Multiple Lapse
Time Window Analysis (MLTWA) method using the basic assumptions of radiative transfer theory that does not require measurement of the total energy in the seismogram. In this method the
integrated energy density over three consecutive time windows
from the S-wave arrival time is evaluated as a function of sourcereceiver distance (Fehler et al., 1992; Hoshiba, 1993). The observed
energy density is compared with the synthesized one to obtain the
seismic albedo, B0, dened as the dimensionless ratio of scattering
loss to total attenuation, and the inverse of the extinction length,
L1
e , that is the inverse of the distance (in kilometers) over which
the primary S-wave energy is decreased by e1 (Wu, 1985; Fehler
et al., 1992). Total attenuation Qd and Qi and Qs are related to these
parameters by the expressions:

3. Methodology
Wu (1985) rst introduced the radiative transfer theory into
Seismology, although it had been used in other areas of Physics
for several decades (Chandrasekhar, 1960). It is an attractive theory
because it allows relatively tractable calculations of effects of
multiple scattering (Sato and Fehler, 1998). The formulation for
nonstationary state was given by Shang and Gao (1988) for 2-D
case and by Zeng et al. (1991) for 3-D case. For multiple isotropic
scattering in a 3-D medium with average velocity V0 comprising
of randomly and homogeneously distributed isotropic point-like
scatterers of cross section r0 of number density nn, the scattering
power per unit volume is given by the total scattering coefcient
g0 = nnr0. For an impulsive source of energy W, the energy density
of direct arrival at a point at a distance r from the source at a time t
after the origin time is given by Weg t  dt  r=V 0 =4pV 0 r2 , where
g = gi + gs, where g is the total attenuation coefcient, gi is the
intrinsic attenuation coefcient and gs is the scattering attenuation
coefcient, which is equal to V0g0. The scattered energy per unit
time from a unit volume at the last scattering point (x0 , t0 ) is equal
to V0g0E(x0 , t0 ). The total energy reaching the point x at time t is
given by:
Z Z Z Z
1

1

1

1

1

Paaschens (1997) found a precise approximation for the solution of

Eq(1) given by:

(
1=8
1  r 2 =v 2 t 2
4pmt=3gs 3=2

"
exp mtgi gs   Pa

p
where S W exp4mptrg2 mi gs  dt  r=m and Pax expx 1 2:026=x .
Solutions of Eqs. (1) and (3) provide information about the
distribution of energy in space and time. Wu and Aki (1988)
analyzed data using stationary state solution. However, for this

Q 1
gi V 0 =x Q 1
i
d 1  B0

The data set consists of digital seismograms of 30 aftershocks of

Chamoli earthquake recorded by a 5-station network operated by
Geological Survey of India (GSI). All stations were equipped with
3-component short period L4C seismometer with 24-bit REFTEK
data logger and GPS timing system. Fig. 2 shows examples of seismograms recorded by this network. All records chosen exhibit very
good signal to noise ratio and were free from glitches and spurious
signals. The SEISAN software package (Havskov and Ottemoller,
2003) was used to pick the P-wave, S-wave and coda-wave arrival
times (Massey, 2006). Fig. 1b, c and d shows the locations of the
stations and events whose data were used for this analysis. The
epicentral distances of all the 30 events fall in the range of 8 km
to 40 km and focal depths vary between 2 km and 20 km. The
magnitude of these events varies between 2.1 and 2.8.
Model curves of the variation of energy density with respect to
hypocentral distance at a given lapse time are computed and then
the MLTWA technique is applied to estimate the attenuation
parameters B0 and L1
e (Zeng et al., 1991; Hoshiba et al., 1991; Fehler
et al., 1992; Mayeda et al., 1992). In order to better understand
possible variations of the attenuation parameters with frequency,
we chose ve narrow frequency bands for the analysis, with central
frequency f and bandwidth 0.3f. The central frequencies chosen
are 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 4 Hz, 8 Hz and 16 Hz. For the calculation of the

Er; t S W  Ht  r=m

1
Q 1
s gs V 0 =x Q d B0

4. The data set and analyses

where



1
r
egt
Gx; t
d
t

4pV 0 r 2
V0

where x is the angular frequency.

Ex0 ; t0 Gx  x0 ;t  t 0 dx0 dt 0

Ex; t WGx; t V 0 g 0

1
Q 1
d gV 0 =x Le V 0 =x

mtgs 1 

r2
m2 t2

3=4 #
3

observed seismic energies as a function of hypocentral distance,

we rst integrated the squared rms amplitudes A2obs f ; r; t of the
bandpass-ltered waveforms as a function of lapse time t over
the three consecutive time windows: 010, 1020, and 2030 s

S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

449

Fig. 2. Example of seismograms for an earthquake (M = 3.0) that occurred on 24 April, 1999 at 18 h, 33 min and 39.5 s at 30.42N, 79.33E and 14.6 km depth. The boxed
portions show the windows from which data were taken for the analysis. CPR, GHT and JSM are the codes of station from which seismograms are taken. Horizontal axis
represents time in second. Vertical axis represents amplitude in counts. Maximum amplitudes in counts for different stations are: CPR-65814, GHT-52319, JSM-76471.

measured from the S wave onset (Fig. 2). For this an 8 pole
Butterworth bandpass lter was used. A coda window of 10 s
duration is taken beginning at 42.5 s lapse time from the origin time
(Fig. 2) and coda energy is obtained for this window by integration
of the squared rms coda amplitude A2cobs f ; r; t of the bandpassltered waveforms. Coda window could be taken any time after
about 23 s after the origin time, which is roughly equal to twice
the maximum S-wave travel time for the given data set. However,
coda window was taken after a much larger lapse time to avoid
overlapping of this window over signicant part of the three windows mentioned above. The A2obs f ; r; t values are normalized by
A2cobs f ; r; t to remove the source, site and instrument effects, i.e.
the coda normalization technique (Aki, 1980) is used. In the present study, the average shear wave velocity, b, is taken as 3.5 km/s
for the crust of the study region (Mukhopadhyay and Kayal, 2003;
Sharma, 2008).
If signal to noise ratios (S/N) were less than 2 for coda windows,
then those data were discarded. For calculation of S/N, data from
noise window of duration 10 s, immediately prior to P-onset was
used. Finally, the ratios of energy at a given central frequency
and that for the coda part were multiplied by 4pr2 to correct for
the geometrical spreading effect. The logarithm of this factor for
a given frequency is plotted with respect to hypocentral distance
for data from the three windows as depicted in Fig. 3. L1
and B0
e
values were obtained by tting the theoretical energydistance
curves for 010, 1020, and 2030 s time windows (Fig. 3) calculated using Eq(3). The t was carried out using a grid search. The
F test was then used to calculate the condence for the estimated
best model parameters (Tuv et al., 2006). The areas of best t are
those with minimum-normalized error less than 1.0085. The grid is
calculated for B0 in the range 0.50.9 with a step of 0.05 for all the
frequency bands. The grid for L1
e for 1 Hz is calculated in the range
0.0050.2 with a step of 0.01. For all the other frequency bands it is
calculated in the range 0.0050.05 with a step of 0.001. The error in
the estimated L1
e and B0 values are larger for 4 and 8 Hz (90% condence regions using the F test are larger) than those at other fre1
1
quencies (Fig. 4). Q 1
i ; Q s and Q d were estimated using the values
1
of Le , B0. Table 1 contains the estimated attenuation parameters gi
1
1
1
1
and gs, L1
and Q 1
d . Fig. 5 shows the plot of Q i ; Q s
e , B0, Q i ; Q s
1
1
and Q d versus frequency. Q i values obtained from the same data
set by Mukhopadhyay et al. (2008) for 40 s lapse time using the

single-backscattering model of Aki and Chouet (1975) are also

superposed for comparison. The results are discussed in the next
section. Q 1
d values were also estimated for the same data set using
the coda normalization method of Aki (1980) and plotted in Fig. 5
for comparison. For obtaining this data was taken for a 5 s window
from the time of onset of S-wave, and for the coda part data was
taken for a window of the same length beginning at 42.5 s after
the origin time. It is observed that the Q 1
values estimated by
d
coda normalization method are comparable to those estimated
by MLTWA method. This shows that the values are reliable. The results are discussed in the next section.
5. Results and discussion
The results of analysis of attenuation characteristics of source
zone of 1999 Chamoli earthquake that occurred in the main Hima-

Fig. 3. Plot of normalized energy versus hypocentral distance for the 010 s
(window 1), 1020 s (window 2) and 2030 s (window 3) windows for different
central frequencies mentioned in the plots. Lines show t to the data for different
windows.

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S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

0.9

0.9

(b) 2 Hz

0.85

0.85

0.8

0.8

0.75

0.75

B0

B0

(a) 1 Hz

0.7

0.7

0.65

0.65

0.6

0.6

0.55

0.55
0.5
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05

0.5

0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09

0.1

Le inverse

Le inverse
0.9

0.9

(d) 8 Hz

0.85

0.85

0.8

0.8

0.75

0.75

B0

B0

(c) 4 Hz

0.7

0.7

0.65

0.65

0.6

0.6

0.55

0.55
0.5
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05

0.5
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05

Le inverse

Le inverse
0.9

(e) 16 Hz
0.85
0.8
Legend

B0

0.75

1 to 1.0085
1.0085 to 1.25
1.25 to 2.5
2.5 to 4.5
4.5 to 20

0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05

Le inverse
Fig. 4. Plot of

L1
e

versus B0 for different frequencies. Legend shows symbol for different normalized error ranges.

layan seismic belt in the Garwhal Himalayas are discussed here.

This is a geologically and tectonically complex region and shows
the effect of continentcontinent collision between Indian and Eurasian plate. It is seismically very active and shows that dynamic
collision is still going on. In this study the S-wave attenuation
mechanism is analyzed and intrinsic and scattering attenuation ef-

fects are separated. This helps in understanding the physical mechanisms governing attenuation properties of the crust of this region.
1
1
It is observed from Fig. 5 that the Q 1
s ; Q d and Q c values at all
1
1
1
frequencies are comparable. The estimated L1
,
B
0, Q i ; Q s ; Q d
e
1
and Q c values (Table 1 and Fig. 5) show that S-wave attenuation
is primarily controlled by scattering attenuation in the source zone

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S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

Table 1
1
1
gi and gs, L1
and Q 1
e , B0, Q i ; Q s
d values for different frequencies.

Frequency (Hz)

gi D gi

gs D g s

B0 DB0

1
L1
e  DLe

Q 1
 DQ 1
i
i

1
Q 1
s  DQ s

1
Q 1
d  DQ d

1
2
4
8
16

0.0170 0.0022
0.0077 0.0024
0.0012 0.0003
0.0030 0.0005
0.0045 0.0015

0.0680 0.0088
0.0143 0.0046
0.0068 0.0022
0.0090 0.0015
0.0135 0.0015

0.8 0.01
0.65 0.01
0.85 0.10
0.75 0.01
0.75 0.05

0.085 0.011
0.022 0.007
0.008 0.004
0.012 0.002
0.018 0.003

0.0095 0.0012
0.0021 0.0007
0.0002 0.0001
0.0002 0.00002
0.0002 0.0001

0.0379 0.005
0.0040 0.0012
0.0009 0.0003
0.0006 0.00008
0.0005 0.00008

0.0474 0.0061
0.0061 0.0020
0.0011 0.0006
0.0008 0.0001
0.0007 0.0002

0.1
Qiinv
Qsinv
Qdinv
Qcinv
Qdinv coda norm

Q-1

0.01

0.001

0.0001
0

10

15

20

25

Frequency (Hz)
1
1
Fig. 5. Plot of Q 1
and Q 1
i ; Qs
d versus frequency obtained by MLTWA method, Q d
obtained using single-backscattering hypothesis for 20 s lapse time (after Mukhopadhyay et al., 2008) and Q 1
versus frequency obtained by coda normalization
d
method (lled square).

of the 1999 Chamoli earthquake. On the basis of P- and S-wave travel time tomography of this region Mukhopadhyay and Kayal
(2003) and Sharma (2008) observed that the crust of this region
is highly heterogeneous. This may explain such high contribution
of scattering attenuation to S- and coda wave attenuation in this
region. Although theoretical predictions given by a number of
workers (e.g., Frankel and Wennerberg, 1987; Shang and Gao,
1988; Abubakirov and Gusev, 1990; Matsunami, 1991; Hoshiba,
1991; Zeng et al., 1991; Gao, 1992; Wennerberg, 1993) suggest
that in a highly scattering medium S- and coda attenuation should
be controlled by intrinsic attenuation, observational results do not
always follow such predictions (Hatzidimitriou, 1994). Our results
also show that for the source zone of 1999 Chamoli earthquake in
the Garwhal Himalayas seismic albedo is very high, i.e., attenuation is mainly controlled by scattering attenuation.
From Fig. 5 it is observed that all the Q1 values decrease drastically with increasing frequency up to 4 Hz and at higher frequency their variation with frequency is very small. This
observation matches with those observed by Mukhopadhyay
et al. (2010) for entire Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas. Any attenuation parameter Q can be represented by the relation Q = Q0fn, where
Q0 is Q at 1 Hz and n represents frequency relation parameter. The
Q0 and n values for various Q values are given in Table 2. The values
obtained by Mukhopadhyay et al. (2010) are also shown for comparison. It is observed that Q0 values are systematically smaller
and n values are systematically larger for the case when they are
obtained using Chamoli aftershock data compared to when they

Table 2
Frequency relation parameters (Q0 and n with error values) estimated from
aftershocks of Chamoli earthquake and general seismicity of GarwhalKumaun
Himalayas.
Parameter

Qi
Qs
Qd

Chamoli

GarwhalKumaun Himalayas

Q0 DQ0

n Dn

Q 0 Dn

n DQ0

189 15
56 5
43 8

1.52 0.02
1.53 0.03
1.54 0.02

769 90
175 44
143 35

0.60 0.02
0.83 0.03
0.77 0.03

are obtained using general seismicity data for the entire

Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas. This could indicate a variation in
attenuation characteristics in the study area. Sharma (2008)
observed that coda Q (Qc) values estimated from general seismicity
data of Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas and that from Chamoli aftershock data for the same lapse time are different, although Chamoli
is located within Garwhal Himalayas. This could indicate a temporal variation in attenuation characteristics of this area. However,
whether the observed variation in Q parameters show precursory
temporal variation or not cannot be claimed condently. In this
area continuous recording of earthquakes has begun from 2006.
Before that seismic networks were operated occasionally and the
entire data set is not available.
A number of investigations were carried out for estimation of Qc
as well as the P- and S-wave Q parameters using either Chamoli
aftershocks or general earthquake data of Garwhal-Kumaun region
within which Chamoli lies. Sharma et al. (2009) estimated Q
parameters for both P- and S-waves. For S-wave they obtained a
frequency relation as Qd = (87 3)f(0.710.03). Using Chamoli data
we obtained a relation of (43 8)f(1.540.02) and using Garwhal-Kumaun data Mukhopadhyay and Sharma (2010) obtained a relation
of (143 35)f(0.770.03). This shows that the value of Q0 obtained by
Sharma et al. (2009) for S-waves lies between the values obtained
by us for Chamoli aftershocks and those obtained by Mukhopadhyay and Sharma (2010) for Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas. Beside this
Sharma et al. (2009) indicated the possibility of higher frequency
enrichment of coda which would lead to stronger effect of scattering on coda. Our study conrms this suggestion (Fig. 5), as we nd
that at higher frequencies S- and coda wave attenuation is primarily controlled by scattering attenuation effect. The Qd values
estimated by Singh et al. (2012a) for Kumaun Himalayas shows a
relation like Qd = (104 10)f(1.30.03). This again shows that
the value of estimated by them lies between those obtained by
us in the present study using Chamoli aftershock data and by
Mukhopadhyay et al. (2010) for Garwhal-Kumaun earthquakes.
They also suggested presence of high degree of heterogeneity for
Kumaun Himalayas. The estimated Qd values for NE India at
11 Hz frequency varies between 164 and 225 (Biswas et al.,
2013). As the values of Qd was given for a single frequency and
the methodology is different we did not carry out any comparison.
Mukhopadhyay et al. (2008) studied lapse time variation of Qc
using Chamoli aftershocks and observed that when we represent
Qc as Qc = Q0fn the values vary between 33f1.17 and 122f0.98 for variation of average lapse time of 19.140.7 s. For Garwhal Kumaun
Himalayas (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2010) these values vary between
105f1.03 and 357f0.66 for average lapse time variation between
65.9 s and 115.6 s showing the fact that coda attenuation decreases
with increasing lapse time. Mandal et al. (2001) estimated Qc using
Chamoli aftershock data and obtained a coda attenuation relation
of 30f1.21, which is similar to the value obtained by Mukhopadhyay
et al. (2008) for Chamoli aftershocks for average lapse time of
19.1 s mentioned above. Gupta et al. (1995) gave a relation of
126f0.95 for coda waves of general earthquakes of Garwhal Himalayas, which is similar to the value for average lapse time of 74.4 s
obtained by Mukhopadhyay and Sharma (2010). The Qc values
obtained by Singh et al. (2012b) for Kumaun Himalayas are

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S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

Southern Appenines
Central California
Canary Islands
Northern Chile
Hawaii
Iberia
Kanto
Long Valley, USA
Northern Anatolian Fault
Messina Strait
Spain
G-K Himalayas
Chamoli
Gauribidanur
Bhuj

0.1

0.01

1/Q i

0.001

0.0001

1E-005

(a)

1E-006
0

12

16

20

Frequency (Hz)
Southern Appenines
Central California
Canary Islands
Northern Chile
Hawaii
Iberia
Kanto
Long Valley, USA
Northern Anatolian Fault
Messina Strait
Spain
G-K Himalayas
Chamoli
Gauribidanur
Bhuj

0.1

1/Q s

0.01

0.001

0.0001

(b)
1E-005
0

12

16

20

Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 6. Comparison of (a) Q 1
and (b) Q 1
with worldwide data. Data for Garwhal
i
s
Kumaun (GK) Himalayas are taken from Mukhopadhyay et al. (2010a), for Bhuj
area from Ugalde et al. (2007), for Gauribidanur area from Tripathi and Ugalde
(2004) and for other regions are taken from Del Pezzo and Bianco (2007).

comparable to the values obtained by Mukhopadhyay and Sharma

(2010) for Garwhal Kumaun Himalayas.
Fig. 6a and b shows comparison of Q 1
and Q 1
i
s respectively with
estimates by different authors in several regions of the world using
the same method (Del Pezzo and Bianco, 2007). Mukhopadhyay
et al. (2010) estimated Q 1
and Q 1
for Garwhal-Kumaun Himalai
s
yas using local earthquake data and MLTWA method. This area
encompasses the Chamoli earthquake source zone. It is observed
from Fig. 6a that at lower frequencies intrinsic attenuation obtained using aftershocks of Chamoli earthquake is higher than that
obtained for Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas using general seismicity
data and at higher frequencies opposite trend is observed. At lower
frequencies Q 1
obtained from Chamoli aftershock data fall within
i
the range of values for all other regions reported. Whereas at higher frequencies it is in general lower than all other regions. The Q 1
i

values obtained using general seismicity data of Garwhal-Kumaun

Himalayas are lower compared to all other regions of the world at
almost all frequencies. On the other hand scattering attenuation
(Fig. 6b) values for 1 and 2 Hz obtained from Chamoli aftershock
data is much higher compared to those obtained from general seismicity data of Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas. From 4 Hz onwards
both data sets give virtually identical Q 1
values. At 2, 4 and
s
8 Hz Q 1
values for Chamoli source region lies approximately in
s
the middle of all the other global values considered. Between 4
and 16 Hz the values decrease very slowly and at higher frequencies the values tend to be on the higher side of average global values. Baruah et al. (2010) used Wennerbergs (1993) method for
separation of Qs and Qi using local earthquake data for NE India.
They
gave
Qs
and
Qi
frequency
relations
as
Qs = (37.53 1.42)f2.680.18 and Qi = (62.21 1.16)f1.250.08 respectively. Comparing with our results (Table 2) it is observed that Q0
values at 1 Hz for both Qs and Qi are slightly lower for NE India
but frequency relation parameter n is much higher for Qs and
slightly higher for Qi compared to Chamoli region. For NE India
S- and coda wave attenuation is primarily controlled by intrinsic
attenuation, whereas for Chamoli region the opposite is true.
Whether this difference is a manifestation of seismotectonic characteristics of these two regions, or the difference is caused by use
of two completely different methods of Qs  Qi separation should
be investigated.
The extinction length Le varies between about 12 km to about
125 km in the study region. The seismic albedo (B0) values vary between 0.65 and 0.8B0 values are very large (>0.5, Table 1) showing
that at all frequencies scattering attenuation is the dominating factor causing attenuation of seismic waves. This shows that the degree of heterogeneity is very high for the frequency range
considered in this area. Mukhopadhyay et al. (2010) obtained similar results using data of local earthquakes that occurred in the
Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas during 20062007. However, both
Q 1
and Q 1
values at lower frequencies are higher for Chamoli
i
s
aftershock data compared to those obtained using general seismicity data of Garwhal-Kumaun Himalayas (Fig. 6a and b). This may
indicate a temporal variation in the attenuation characteristics of
this region as Chamoli region falls within Garwhal Himalayas.
However, to study temporal variation and to see whether there is
preseismic and postseismic variation in attenuation characteristics
data over longer time duration that include both foreshocks and
aftershocks of large earthquakes like 1999 Chamoli earthquake
are required. Unfortunately, such data is not available. In the NW
Himalayas Mukhopadhyay and Tyagi (2008) and Mukhopadhyay
et al. (2006) observed that at low frequencies both intrinsic and
scattering attenuations have almost equal contribution, whereas
at higher frequencies intrinsic attenuation is the dominating attenuation mechanism. However, a direct comparison is not possible as
they used Wennerbergs (1993) method for separation of Q 1
and
i
Q 1
s . Based on estimated variation of Qc with lapse time Sharma
(2008) and Mukhopadhyay et al. (2008) predicted that the upper
63 km of the lithosphere is highly heterogeneous, but the mantle
below is relatively transparent. On the basis of travel time tomography Sharma (2008) showed that the crust in this area is highly
heterogeneous. The present study corroborates this fact.
In conclusion, it is to be noted that our knowledge of attenuation mechanism of the source region of Chamoli earthquake in
Garwhal Himalayas have improved with the use of MLTWA method. It shows that the crust in this region is highly heterogeneous
and attenuation is primarily controlled by scattering attenuation.
However, use of a more realistic earth model, where crustal velocity structure as well as intrinsic and scattering attenuation vary
with depth, could be more appropriate than a homogeneous earth
model for modeling attenuation in the crust as suggested by
Margerin et al. (1999), Hoshiba et al. (2001) and several other

S. Mukhopadhyay et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 79 (2014) 446454

workers. Notwithstanding the homogeneous isotropic scattering

model used in this study, the results can be useful for comparison
with those of other tectonically active zones of the world.

Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Director, Geological Survey of India for providing the data to us. A partial support has been given by Italy
INGV-DPC (Istituto Nazionale di Geosica e Vulcanologia and
Dipartimento di Protezione Civile) Projects UNREST and SPEED,
and by Italys Ministry of Education PRIN project (Seismic Hazard
in Central Apennines, UR Del Pezzo).

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