A review of Indian seismic zones based on historical earthquake data using geographical information system

The present study aims to analyze the Indian seismic zones based on historical Earthquake data in the mainland region. The study begins by mapping the historical earthquakes in and around the Indian mainland region classified to different states and districts. The data of 16500 earthquakes from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), about the last 110 years around the mainland has been taken into consideration for the present study. Different seismic zones on the basis of their vulnerability or earthquake susceptibility parameters such as average magnitude, effective frequency, buffer frequency, energy attenuation etc. have been created, which are then compared with the actual seismic zone formed by various government and quasi-government agencies such as National Centre for Seismology, National Disaster Management Authority, Department of Science and Technology etc. A different aspect of earthquake hazard, for example, frequency and magnitude-based analysis, analysis using a variable radius of influence, attenuation of earthquake intensity etc., has been considered. Finally, the results are compared using three different correlation coefficients on district and state-based classification. Interesting results found from the analysis emphasize on the district, taluka level seismic classification with periodic review of Indian seismic zones.