The micro‐seismicity of Co. Donegal (Ireland): Defining baseline seismicity in a region of slow lithospheric deformation

Abstract

A catalogue of precisely located micro-seismicity is fundamental for investigating seismicity and rock physical properties in active tectonic and volcanic regions and for the definition of a ‘baseline’ seismicity, required for a safe future exploitation of georesource areas. In this study, we produce the first manually revised catalogue of micro-seismicity for Co. Donegal region (Ireland), an area of about 50K M2 of on-going deformation, aimed at localizing natural micro-seismic events occurred between 2012 and 2015. We develop a stochastic method based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo (McMC) sampling approach to compute earthquake hypocentral location parameters. Our results indicates that micro-seismicity is present with magnitudes lower than 2 (the highest magnitude is 2.8).The recorded seismicity is almost clustered along previously mapped NE-SW trending, steeply dipping faults and confined within the upper crust (focal depth less than 10 km). We also recorded anthropogenic seismicity mostly related to quarries' activity in the study area.