Abstract:
A devastating earthquake (M-w 7.7) struck Bhuj area, Gujarat, western India on 26 January 2001. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) data that were collected over three years (2001-03), displacement vectors in the Bhuj region were estimated. The local horizontal displacement vectors represent a general southwestward movement and the regional horizontal displacement vectors were in the northeast direction, parallel to the NE-SW trending major lineament and the major axis of the isoseismal of the 2001 earthquake. This observation is in conformity with the reverse faulting of the main shock and aftershocks due to the dominant compressional stress of the NNE-ward movement of the Indian plate. Some anomalous displacement vectors during the GPS epoch 2002-03 could be the result of a rebound of the southern block subsequent to the earthquake.