Estimation of Seismicity Parameters for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

The present study attempts to estimate the seismicity parameters for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (12°–19° N and 77°–89° E) using the latest earthquake data. The updated seismic catalogue was developed by using the dataset from Kolathayar et al. (J Earth Syst Sci 121:1351–1364, 2012) [1] and updating it to the present day. The catalogue was homogenized and then declustered using Gardner and Knopoff (Bull Seismol Soc Am 64:1363–1367, 1974) [2]. The period of completeness for various magnitude intervals was estimated using Stepp (Proceedings of the 1st international conference on microzonazion, vol 2(1), pp. 897–910, 1972) [3], and seismicity parameters for the study area were determined using least square fit. The Gutenberg and Richter (Bull Seismol Soc Am 34:185–188, 1944) [4] relationship was used to calculate a and b, which were 3.64 and 0.72, respectively. These values are vital in performing seismic hazard assessment for the area later.