Separation of Intrinsic and Scattering Attenuation in North-West of Iranian pleateau

In this study, we have used recorded local earthquakes by 17 permanet seismic stations to separate intrinsic and scattering attenuation in North-West of Iranian pleateau. Intrinsic and scattering attenuation can be applied as useful tools to study the geodynamic and tectonic characteristics of a region. They also represent thermal, compositional and deformational characteristics of the crust and upper mantle. The wave attenuation has strong correlation with seismicity and heterogeneity of medium and is regularly used in the study of tectonically active regions of the world. Single backscattering and coda normalized methods are used to estimate the coda Q (Qc) and Qs respectively, using 14,969 earthquakes which are recorded by the stations. The results show this region is very active region tectonically and seismically. Due to low values of Quality factor and thus high attenuation values of body and shear waves in North West part of Iran, amplitude of the propagated waves are decreased severely in the interested area.The intrinsic attenuation and the Coda wave attenuations curves around the North Tabriz fault are closer in comparison with entire northwestern Iran region and Tabriz city, indicating a strong attenuation of the earthquake waves around this fault system. Similarly, these curves are closer in Tabriz city than those calculated for the northwestern region of Iran which expresses the overriding intrinsic attenuation from the effect of dispersion. The attenuation effect of seismic waves reduces the damages caused by earthquakes at appropriate distances of faults at the time of earthquake occurrence.