the seismotectonics of central alborz

Central alborz in northern iran lies between the rigid aseismic south caspian basin and central iran, and host many large cities among them the megacity of tehran. previous studies have shown central alborz has a low rate of strain rate, especially around tehran city (vernant et al., 2004). the low strain rate has been further distributed between several large active faults. the low seismicity, large recurrence time of earthquakes, a large number of active faults and sparse seismic networks are the main obstacles to study the seismotectonics of the region. this in turn led to conflicting views on either the sense of direction of some faults or on the activity of some of the suggested active faults. there are several precise seismotectonic studies in tehran region but they are for small regions, performed over short periods and does not coverthe whole central alborz. to overcome some of the mentioned obstacles, we have compiled a new catalog of earthquakes and focal mechanisms for central alborz by compiling waveforms of all permanent and temporary seismic networks in the region over the period of 1996-2019.