Seismogenesis of earthquakes occuring in the Kachchh rift zone, India

Most of the seismicity in India confines to the Himalayan frontal arc, however, earthquakes do also occur in the plate interior of Indian subcontinent, which are known as Intraplate earthquakes. Most of these earthquakes (viz. 1819 Kachchh, 2001 Bhuj, 1993 Latur, 1967 Koyna and 1997 Jabalpur) are found to occur in Intraplate regions of India, which were influenced by the Deccan volcanism of 65 Ma. The Deccan basaltic outpouring took place when Indian plate moved over the Re-union hot spot. The Deccan event was associated with a mantle plume that has altered significantly the petrology and geochemistry associated with crust and lithosphere below the Deccan volcanic province covering a huge 0.5 million sq.km. area of the Indian sub-continent. Thus, the study of the influence of Deccan volcanism event on the crust and upper mantle structure below the seismically active intraplate regions can provide important clues to understand the seismogenesis of the Indian intraplate earthquakes occurring in Kachchh, Gujarat, in particular and Indian sub-continent, in general. This gap in our understanding of Indian intraplate seismicity has motivated us to conceive the present monograph.