Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

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Tectonophysics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto

A long duration non-volcanic earthquake sequence in the stable continental T

region of India: The Palghar swarm
Varun Sharmaa, Monika Wadhawana, Naresh Ranaa, K.M. Sreejithb, Ritesh Agrawalb,
⁎
Charu Kamrac, K.S. Hosalikard, Kiran V. Narkheded, G. Suresha, Vineet K. Gahalaute,
a
National Center for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India
b
ISRO-Space Applications Centre Ahmadabad, India
c
Institute of Seismological Research, Ahmadabad, India
d
India Meteorological Department, RMC, Mumbai, India
e
CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In November 2018 a low magnitude earthquake swarm started on the west coast of central India which is
Earthquake swarm continuing into 2020. The swarm started much after the monsoon season and was on decline in May–June 2019
Stable continental region but the earthquake frequency again increased during monsoonal rainfall which started in June 2019. So far it has
Indian plate produced more than 16,000 earthquakes of magnitude −0.5 to 3.8 with an equivalent single earthquake
InSAR analysis
magnitude of 4.5. All the earthquakes are tightly clustered in a region of 10 × 6 km2 and occur through normal
Crustal deformation
slip on north-south oriented east dipping steep fault(s) which extends up to a depth of 6–7 km only. The InSAR
analysis reveals a subsidence of ~3 cm between November 2018 to May 2019 in the swarm region and confirms
that the resulting deformation occurred through normal slip. The occurrence of tightly clustered shallow focus
earthquakes causing subsidence due to normal slip in the overall compressive regime of stable continental region
of the Indian plate, imply some shallow subsurface process of precipitated water migration leading to collapse of
subsurface cavities and may not be linked with the tectonics of the region. We propose that aseismic slip driven
by the fluid migration at shallow depth is responsible for the swarm.

1. Introduction magnitudes between 3.9 and 5.9 in just 5 days, with 150 earthquakes of
magnitude more than 5 (Kundu et al., 2012). The total seismic moment
Strain in the earth's crust is released through earthquake sequences of the 2005 Andaman swarm was equivalent to an earthquake of Mw of
and also through aseismic slip along faults. Earthquake sequences are 6.8. Swarms are more common in the volcanic regions, mid-oceanic
typically classified as the foreshock, mainshock (the largest magnitude ridges, transform plate boundaries and also in the subduction zones but
earthquake) and the aftershocks. However, there are a few incidences are rare in plate interior regions (Heinicke et al., 2009). As their un-
when earthquakes in a sequence do not have a clear mainshock and derlying causes are not fully understood, they are defined rather em-
they are clustered in space and time. Such sequences are referred as pirically than deterministically and their triggering mechanisms and
earthquake swarm. Mogi (1962) suggested that the occurrence of driving forces are also unclear (Horálek et al., 2014). Nevertheless, they
swarm sequences implies that the region is exceptionally heterogeneous are mostly linked with hydrothermal fluid diffusion and magmatic
in material properties and stress concentrations. Swarms generally movement, dike intrusion (Toda et al., 2002), CO2 degassing (Cappa
cover a large area in comparison to its total energy release. They may et al., 2009), slow slip at depth (Holtkamp et al., 2011; Holtkamp and
last a few hours to a few months. However, there have been some Brudzinski, 2011), aseismic fault slip (Segall et al., 2006; Lohman and
unusually long swarms, e.g., the 1965–1967 Matsushiro earthquake McGuire, 2007; Kuna et al., 2019), and pore pressure changes (Miller
swarm in southwest Honshu, Japan (Cappa et al., 2009) is probably the et al., 2004; Chen et al., 2012; Hainzl et al., 2012; Miller, 2013).
longest swarm with more than 700,000 earthquakes of magnitude up to Earthquake swarms in stable continental regions are generally rare
5.4. Some of the swarms have been really energetic, e.g., the 2005 and their triggering mechanism is unknown (Heinicke et al., 2009). On
Andaman sea earthquake swarm produced 650 earthquakes of the contrary, the stable continental part of Indian plate (mostly the

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (V.K. Gahalaut).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2020.228376
Received 21 October 2019; Received in revised form 11 February 2020; Accepted 17 February 2020
Available online 20 February 2020
0040-1951/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
V. Sharma, et al. Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

Fig. 1. (a) Location of Palghar swarm. Box in the

inset shows the location of (a), earthquakes of mag-
nitude greater than 4 as gray dots (USGS). In the
inset, three prominent clusters of earthquakes are the
2001 Bhuj, 1967 Koyna and 1993 Killari earthquakes.
The three paleo rifts from north to south are the
Kachchh, Narmada-Son and Godavari paleo rifts.
Swarms mentioned in the “Introduction” are shown
by filled red circles. Arrow indicates the direction of
India plate. (b) Earthquakes of Palghar swarm during
January 26–May 30, 2019 along with the seismic
network. All earthquakes of magnitude range from
−0.5 to 3.8 located by the network are shown here.
DGRI and KASA were shifted to SSNE and DNVR,
respectively. Nearby reservoirs are also shown.
Several north-south oriented lineaments can be seen
on the SRTM topographic image. (For interpretation
of the references to colour in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

peninsular India) has witnessed several earthquake swarms in past moderate to strong magnitude earthquakes in 1938, 1970 and 1997.
(Fig. 1), e.g., the Khandwa swarm in 1993–94 and in 1998–1999 Narmada Son paleo rift is a failed or aborted rift which is now under
(Srivastava and Dube, 1996; Mishra et al., 2000); Jawhar (In Mahar- north-south compression (Gahalaut et al., 2004a). The Kachchh region
ashtra) swarm in 1994, 2012 and 2018; Valsad/Navasari (southern which produced 2001 Bhuj earthquake is ~500 km towards northwest,
Gujarat) swarms in 1986–87 and 2016–17 (Rao et al., 1991; Sateesh while the 1993 Killari earthquake region is ~450 km towards southeast
et al., 2019), Talala (Saurashtra, Gujarat) swarm in 2001, 2004, 2007 and the Koyna Warna region of ongoing seismicity triggered by the
and 2011 (Hainzl et al., 2015); Hyderabad in 1998 (Raju et al., 2000) reservoirs is ~320 km south-southwest of the swarm region (inset of
and several others as cited in Srivastava and Dube (1996). Interestingly Fig. 1). The swarm region is covered by thick (~1.5 km) fractured
many of them occurred during or immediately after the monsoon Deccan basalt and it is to the west of the Western Ghat escarpment
(Pimprikar and Devarajan, 2003; Hainzl et al., 2015; Sateesh et al., which is considered as the retreated rift shoulder, the height of which is
2019). Also, there are a few earthquake sequences which were either supported by the lithosphere flexure despite intense erosion (Gunnel
associated with reservoir impoundment (e.g., Bhatsa, Iddukki) or were and Fleitout, 2000). Based on the dip of the basalt flood plains, a
possibly foreshocks of large earthquakes (e.g., 1967 Koyna; Guha et al., monoclinal feature known as the Panvel flexure (Fig. 1) has also been
1968 and 1993 Killari; Baumbach et al., 1994). Amongst all the swarms mapped (Auden, 1949; Dessai and Bertrand, 1995; Sheth, 1998).
in peninsular India, the ongoing 2018–2019 Palghar swarm on the However, its seismic status and potential to generate or host earth-
western coastal region of stable India plate probably has the longest quakes is unknown. Nevertheless, an earthquake of magnitude ~5 is
duration. We discuss some fundamental characteristics and possible reported to have occurred in 1856 in the region whose precise location
reasons of its occurrence. is not known.
A broadband seismograph was installed on December 12, 2018 near
village Dhundhalwadi (DDWD). Subsequently, three more broad band
2. Palghar swarm seismographs were installed in the region (Fig. 1). The temporal var-
iation of daily earthquake frequency at DDWD which worked unin-
The swarm started sometime in November 2018 and an earthquake terrupted throughout the period of analysis, the nearest station to the
of magnitude (mL) 3.2 was reported on November 11, 2018 by the earthquake cluster, is shown in Fig. 2. Earthquake frequency increased
Indian seismological network. Felt report suggested that the earth- in the beginning of February 2019 when 6 earthquakes of magnitude
quakes with rumbling sound occurred close to the village more than 3.0 occurred on February 1, 2019. Earthquake frequency
Dhundhalwadi in Talsari Taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra, near remained quite high until April 2019. The frequency of earthquakes
west coast of central India. The area is traversed by several north-south decreased continuously till the end of June 2019 but again increased in
lineaments (Fig. 1). The nearest tectonically active region is the mod- the month of July 2019 which continue even now (i.e., while writing
erately active Narmada Son paleo-rift (Fig. 1) which has produced

Fig. 2. Daily earthquake frequency at DDWD station

along with the rainfall at Palghar. DDWD started
operating from December 12, 2018. Numbers show
earthquakes of magnitude more than 3. An earth-
quake of magnitude 3.2 occurred on November 11,
2018 which was recorded by the nearby stations of
the Indian national network. The red wavy line shows
the period after the first recorded earthquake of
magnitude 3.2 during which no local network was in
place but small earthquakes must have occurred
during that period. The four estimated focal me-
chanisms for the earthquakes of February 1, 2019 (M
3.2, 3.6, 3.6) and March 1, 2019 (M 3.8) are also
shown. (For interpretation of the references to colour
in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

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V. Sharma, et al. Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

this paper in February 2020). The swarm started about 3 months after and these earthquakes are occurring on steep eastward dipping fault
the summer monsoon of 2018 was over in August. zone.
We read the P and S arrival times phases manually and located The total moment release of the swarm till May 2019 is 6.6 × 1022
earthquakes of the swarm using SEISAN. The SeP time at DDWD station dyne-cm, equivalent to a single earthquake of moment magnitude 4.5
is less than 1 s for majority of the earthquakes, implying that the which is based on more than 30 earthquakes of magnitude more than
earthquakes are very shallow, less than ~8 km. We tested several ve- 2.5 reported by the Indian national seismological network. Unlike most
locity models which have been used in the nearby regions, e.g., the of the swarms on earth (Okada et al., 2015; Roland and McGuire,
Koyna region (Shashidhar et al., 2011 and references therein). All the 2009), the Palghar swarm does not show any significant migration with
available velocity models provided depths of majority of the earth- time (Fig. S1). We estimated b value (Aki, 1965) of 0.85 for the
quakes shallower than 6 km. We also tested a half space velocity model earthquake magnitudes in the range of 0.7 to 2.7 (Fig. S2). In fact, even
in which we varied velocity of P wave from 4.5 km/s to 6.5 km/s. We in this range the earthquakes do not appear to follow the linear Gu-
find that a P velocity of 5.3 km/s provides the minimum in the rms tenberg Richter power law and the slope seems to be changing con-
error and also in the residual times of P wave. This velocity estimate is tinuously from 0.7 to 1.3 for magnitude range from 0.5 to 3.6, shown by
lower than any other estimate from the available velocity models a dotted curve in Fig. S2. Such change in b value has been observed in
(Shashidhar et al., 2011) for the shallow part. Using the Wadati dia- volcanic earthquake sequences or those influenced by fluids (Kundu
gram, we estimated the Vp/Vs ratio as 1.75. The errors were sig- et al., 2012). In this case, we rule out the volcanic origin of the swarm,
nificantly less for these estimates than for any other velocity models but role of fluids in terms of pore pressure may not be negated. We also
described in Shashidhar et al., (2011). We adopted this estimate of noticed more earthquakes of low magnitude in the night time because
velocity for locating earthquakes of the swarm. During the period be- of the low noise and hence high detection capability during night time
tween January 26, 2019 to May 30, 2019 we located more than 3500 (Fig. S3). We estimated focal mechanism of four earthquakes which
earthquakes of magnitude varying from −0.5 to 3.8 which were re- occurred on February 1, 2019 (Mw 3.2, 3.6, 3.8) and March 1, 2019
corded at all 4 stations (Fig. 3). The corresponding error in the epi- (Mw 3.8) using the moment-tensor (MT) inversion approach of Kikuchi
central location is ~0.2 km and for the depth is ~0.5 km. The earth- and Kanamori (1991) and Zahradnik and Plesinger (2005) (Fig. 3, Fig.
quakes are clustered in a small region of 10 × 6 km2 with their focal S4–6). All earthquakes show almost similar focal mechanism indicating
depths between 2 and 6 km (Fig. 3). Depth sections along and across the normal slip on the approximately north-south oriented plane, consistent
north-south trending cluster suggest that the focal depth of earthquakes with the orientation of lineaments in the region and the trend of the
is generally deeper at the middle of the earthquake cluster in latitude earthquake cluster. We consider the east dipping plane as the fault

Fig. 3. (a) Zoomed version of Fig. 1b showing the spatial and depth distribution (in b and c) of the earthquakes. Four focal mechanisms are shown in (a) and the one
with light red colour is poorly constrained.

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V. Sharma, et al. Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

plane for these earthquakes, which is consistent with Fig. 3c. region (Fig. S7b-S9). In Fig. 4 we show the total displacement along the
LOS between November 11, 2018 and May 27, 2019. Interestingly the
LOS deformation exactly coincides with the earthquakes of the swarm.
3. InSAR analysis of deformation caused by the earthquake
Unfortunately, for this region there are no data in the ascending track to
sequence
convert the LOS into horizontal and vertical surface displacements. We
modelled the observed LOS deformation as a planar dislocation buried
A total number of 45 interferograms were generated using
in an elastic half –space (Okada, 1985). Consistent with the spatial and
Sentntinel-1 SAR data acquired during October 2018 and May 2019. We
depth distribution of the earthquakes in Fig. 3 and the estimated focal
used GMTSAR (Sandwell et al., 2011) and SNAPHU (Chen and Zebker,
mechanism solutions, we assume a north south oriented model fault
2001) software for InSAR processing and phase unwrapping, respec-
with length and width as 5 and 4 km, respectively, dipping steeply (65°)
tively. Topographic phases were removed using Shuttle Radar Topo-
to the east with its up-dip edge at 1 km. We compute LOS deformations
graphic Mission (SRTM) data of 30 m spatial resolution. To reduce ef-
for slip values varying from 0 to 25 cm keeping other fault parameters
fects of orbital and ionospheric perturbations a best-fit quadratic plane
constant as constrained by the seismological data. We estimated the
was subtracted from the interferograms. We observed that coarse-re-
best-fit normal slip as 11 ± 2.1 cm based on the minimum Root Mean
solution global atmospheric models are not effective in correcting at-
Square Error (RMSE) criteria (Fig. 5). Such a fault model would yield a
mospheric artifacts for the localised deformation associated the swarm.
moment magnitude of 5.08 ± 0.06. The best-fit model is consistent
Indeed, in the swarm region, the topography is quite subdued and
with the observed LOS deformation and fits well with a misfit of 4.4 mm
hence there are remote chance for topography correlated atmospheric
(Fig. 5 and S1), which implies that the observed LOS deformation is
artifacts. Interferograms suspected to have turbulent atmospheric
indeed caused by the normal faulting. It also suggests that the LOS
components were manually removed by applying pair-wise logic. Fi-
deformation is dominated by subsidence (reaching up to 3 cm, Fig.S10).
nally, we selected 36 interferograms for time series analysis after vi-
It is interesting to note that the deformation started with the intense
sually checking for atmospheric artifacts and phase unwrapping errors
earthquake activity in the swarm and is confined only in the swarm
(Fig. S7a). InSAR time series analyses were carried out using SBAS al-
region and the neighbouring region is unaffected by the ongoing
gorithm (Berardino et al., 2002) implemented in GIANT software
swarm. These measurements are also consistent with the estimated
(Agram et al., 2013). Uncertainties associated with the interferograms
normal slip type of focal mechanisms and confirm that the overall de-
were computed using a jack-knife approach (Agram et al., 2013)
formation mechanism of the swarm is tensile. The moment equivalent
The time-series deformation maps clearly show consistent and
magnitude (Mw) derived from InSAR deformation is 5.08 (Mo
progressive negative line-of-sight (LOS) displacement in the swarm

Fig. 4. Upper panels show total deformation along the Line Of Sight (LOS) between October 10, 2018 and May 5, 2019. Earthquake epicentres are also shown in the
upper right panel for reference. Lower panels show temporal variation in LOS along two east-west profiles, P1 and P2, marked in the upper right panel.

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V. Sharma, et al. Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

Fig. 5. Observed, simulated and residual

deformation along the LOS. Dashed rec-
tangle in the upper middle panel shows the
surface projection of the slip plane. Focal
mechanism estimated from the model is also
shown. Lower left panel shows the observed
deformation (gray circles along 8 east-west
profiles and its average shown by black line)
and simulated deformation along LOS using
the best-fit slip of 11 cm. RMSE Misfit-curve
for the models with varying normal slip is
shown in the bottom right panel. The best-fit
slip is marked with a red star. (For inter-
pretation of the references to colour in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the
web version of this article.)

5.2 × 1023 dyne-cm), corresponding to the deformation of the period region in the north locally alter the stress system in the Warna region to
from October 2018 to May 2019. The difference between the seismic cause normal slip during earthquakes (Gahalaut et al., 2004b; Gahalaut
moment (Mo) of the swarm (0.7 × 1023 dyne-cm corresponding to Mw and Gahalaut, 2008). In the Palghar swarm region, we are not sure
4.5) and that estimated from the InSAR deformation analysis what process brings the stress to the critical level for failure in normal
(5.2 × 1023 dyne-cm) implies that a significant amount of deformation slip on the north-south oriented faults in the otherwise compressive
in the region is aseismic (Lohman and McGuire, 2007). regime of the peninsular India. Is it due to the flexure of the litho-
sphere? It has been suggested that the height of the Western Ghat es-
4. Discussion carpment, which runs parallel to the west coast (Fig. 1a), is supported
by the flexure of the lithosphere (Gunnel and Fleitout, 2000). Such a
Generally, it is assumed that fluid overpressure build-up acts as a flexure would cause extension in the upper part of the lithosphere
triggering mechanism for earthquake swarm (e.g., Hainzl et al., 2006; (above the neutral fiber, Catherine et al., 2007) which reduces the
Vidale and Shearer, 2006; Heinicke et al., 2009). Alternatively or ad- normal stress on the north-south oriented vertical or steep planes,
ditionally, aseismic slip can drive swarm (e.g., Lohman and McGuire, parallel to the Western Ghat escarpment, thus promoting failure.
2007). Once a swarm is initiated then the subsequent activity is prob- However, the escarpment is prominent only up to south of 19.3°N la-
ably driven both by the fluid flow along the critically stressed fault zone titude, which is about 100 km south of the swarm region. North of
and static and dynamic stress transfer from previous earthquakes 19.3°N it is either not prominent or it is highly degraded. Thus, the
(Horálek et al., 2014). Thus the essential ingredients in this mechanism possibility of flexure influencing the stress regime in this region is very
are the presence of critically stressed faults and the availability of low.
fluids. Although a major north-south oriented feature, known as the Several cases of rainfall triggered seismicity have been reported
Panvel flexure is mapped in the region on the basis of dip of the flows (e..g., Muco, 1999; Raju et al., 2000; Saar and Manga, 2003; Pimprikar
and foliation planes, its seismic potential and whether it is a fault and Devarajan, 2003; Kraft et al., 2006; Hainzl et al., 2006, 2015;
(which is active), is not known. Besides this, there are several north- Sateesh et al., 2019). In case of Palghar swarm, it started in November
south striking lineaments in the region and some of them could be 2018, after the intense rainfall during monsoon season which ended in
linked with the faults or fractures which could be extending at depth. It August. The swarm was very intense until April 2019 and then it was on
is possible that one or more such faults host the current swarm activity. decline (Fig. 2). However, it seems that the next monsoon season which
However, the real issue here is the sense of slip involved in the earth- started in June 2019 and became intense in July 2019, again increased
quakes of the swarm. The earthquake focal mechanisms and our InSAR the frequency of earthquakes. The later episode of enhanced earthquake
analysis confirm that the earthquakes in the swarm are occurring activity suggests that the swarm was probably triggered by the mon-
through normal motion on the approximately north-south oriented soon. Here we cite similar cases from the neighbouring regions. Sateesh
plane, steeply dipping towards east. Occurrence of normal earthquakes et al. (2019) reported a few episodes of swarms from two neighbouring
is inconsistent with the generally compressive environment of stable regions, 75 (Navsari region) and 25 km (Valsad region) north-northeast
region of the Indian plate (e.g., Gowd et al., 1992; Mahesh et al., 2012). of Palghar swarm region. As the shallow earthquake activity in these
The only exception is the Koyna-Warna region which is located two regions started (in September 2016 and August 2017) immediately
~300 km south of the swarm in a similar environment. In the Koyna- after the summer monsoon, they proposed that the earthquakes could
Warna region, earthquakes are considered to be triggered by the Koyna have been induced by the monsoon. The Navsari region experienced
and Warna reservoirs (Gupta, 2002). Normal faulting on the almost episode of earthquake swarm earlier also, in 1986–87 (Rao et al., 1991),
north-south oriented planes in the southern part of the Koyna-Warna however, they ascribed it to reactivation of some preexisting linea-
region occur in response to the earthquakes in the north region which ments. Arora and Reddy (1991) ascribed this activity to the presence of
occur through sinistral motion on the approximately north-south or- a resistive plutonic body or volcanic plug within the north-south or-
iented planes (Gahalaut et al., 2004b). Thus, earthquakes in the Koyna iented conductive belt. Yet another example of swarm is from Talala,

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V. Sharma, et al. Tectonophysics 779 (2020) 228376

~250 km northwest of the Palghar swarm region. The reported five peninsular India imply that this swarm might not have a tectonic origin
episodes of earthquake swarms in the year 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 and it could be occurring due to some shallow subsurface processes
in Talala, Gujarat started in the month of October each year, after the probably caused by the movement of water, collapse of subsurface
monsoon period was over and when the two nearby reservoirs (Hiran-1 cavities and large aseismic deformation.
and Hiran-2, though of very small sizes ~3 × 2 km2) attained max-
imum water level (Hainzl et al., 2015). In case of Palghar swarm the Author contribution
nearest reservoir is the Kurze reservoir. The reservoir impoundment for
irrigation and water supply was completed in 1976 with height of the Varun Sharma, Naresh Rana and Kiran V Narkhede contributed in
dam as 22.96 m (http://cwc.gov.in/reservoir-storage?page=9). Al- Data curation, data analysis and field investigation. Monika Wadhawan
though the reservoir is of comparable size (~3 × 1.5 km2) to that of and Charu Kamra contributed in data analysis. K M Srejith and Ritesh
Hiran 1 and Hiran 2 and is located only at a distance of about 5 km from Agrawal contributed in InSAR data analysis. K.S Hosalikar and Kiran V
the earthquake swarm, as per the known physical mechanism of re- Narkhede acquired the rainfall data. G. Suresh helped in data analysis.
servoir which involved change in stress and pore pressure, it appears Vineet K Gahalaut conceptualized and supervised the entire project. All
unlikely that this small reservoir triggered the earthquake swarm after authors contributed towards writing of the original draft.
four decades of its impoundment. However, it is possible that the pre-
cipitation might have triggered the earthquake swarm in the region Declaration of competing interest
with some initial delay of a few months. Possibly the precipitation and
subsurface migration and diffusion of the water caused subsidence/ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
subsurface collapse of cavities along with the aseismic deformation. interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
Interestingly, magnetotelluric studies taken up in the region in 2019 to ence the work reported in this paper.
understand the genesis of these earthquakes clearly indicate presence of
fluids exactly coinciding with the cluster of earthquakes (Ajay Manglik, Acknowledgement
CSIR-NGRI, personal communication January 2019, paper under sub-
mission). Thus the presence of fluids in the region is unequivocally We thank local administration in the Palghar district for support.
confirmed. We are particularly thankful to Mr. Rahul Sarang, Tehsildar, Dahanu
Saar and Manga (2003) investigated a similar case of seismicity and Mr. Vivekanand Kadam for their kind support. We also thank the
induced by the seasonal groundwater recharge at Mt. Hood, Oregon and officials of Vedanata Hospital, Dhundalwadi for providing space for the
estimated a hydraulic diffusivity of 0.3 m2/s. Assuming sinusoidal an- seismic observatory. Kamlesh Chaudhury, Rajeev Kumar and Ganesh
nual loading, mean earthquake depth as 4 km, and a delay of Iyer of NCS helped in the initial deployment of the seismographs. KMS
3–4 months in the earthquake occurrence of Palghar sequence with and RA are supported by GAP program of SAC. Earthquake data of
respect to the summer monsoon, we estimated the hydraulic diffusivity magnitude more than 2.5 from Palghar region can be found at www.
as ~0.4 m2/s which is quite consistent with that of Saar and Manga for seism.gov.in. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their con-
a similar case. This estimate is also within the range given by Talwani structive comments and Editor Kelin Wang for his support. This is NGRI
et al. (2007) for triggered seismicity where role of pore pressure is in- publication number NGRI/Lib/2020/Pub-18.
volved. In addition, surface loading due to precipitation has been sug-
gested to modulate episodic tremor events in northern Cascadia (Pollitz Appendix A. Supplementary data
et al., 2013) and earthquakes in California and Himalaya (Huang et al.,
1979; Bettinelli et al., 2008; Johnson et al., 2017). Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
The above discussion leads us to suggest that the monsoon might doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2020.228376.
have played some role in the initiation of this swarm by inducing
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