Estimating the macroseismic parameters of earthquakes in eastern Iran

Macroseismic intensity values allow assessing the macroseismic parameters of earthquakes such as location, magnitude, and fault orientation. This information is particularly useful for historical earthquakes whose parameters were estimated with low accuracy. Eastern Iran (56°–62°E, 29.5°-35.5°N), which is characterized by several active faults, was selected for this study. Among all earthquakes occurred in this region, only 29 have some macroseismic information. Their intensity values were reported in various intensity scales. After collecting the descriptions, their intensity values were re-estimated in a uniform intensity scale. Thereafter, Boxer method was applied to estimate their corresponding macroseismic parameters. Boxer estimates of macroseismic parameters for instrumental earthquakes (after 1964) were found to be consistent with those published by Global Centroid Moment Tensor Catalog (GCMT). Therefore, this method was applied to estimate location, magnitude, source dimension, and orientation of these earthquakes with macroseismic description in the period 1066–2012. Macroseismic parameters seem to be more reliable than instrumental ones not only for historical earthquakes but also for instrumental earthquakes especially for the ones occurred before 1960. Therefore, as final results of this study we propose to use the macroseismically determined parameters in preparing a catalog for earthquakes before 1960.