Possible influence of subducting ridges on the Himalayan arc and on the ruptures of great and major Himalayan earthquakes

Gahalaut, Vineet K.; Kundu, Bhaskar

doi:10.1016/j.gr.2011.07.021

Cited by 119 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…2b scenario A/C), while the thin red box corresponds to the extent of blind Mw 7+ events similar to that in 2015. Note that rupture termini roughly coincide with the southernmost limits of major southern Tibetan grabens and/or Indian basement highs (Bollinger et al 2004a, b;Gahalaut and Kundu, 2012;Godin and Harris, 2014). The position in time of the gray dotted line within the gap between Kathmandu and Pokhara is model dependent, plotted visually seven centuries after 1344 and 1408 AD, and is consistent with time clustering of earthquakes rather than the full variability of trench-derived return times (850 ± 370 years (Bollinger et al, 2014)) and VII, Fig.…”

Section: Seismic Rupture Scenarios and Return Timesupporting

confidence: 65%

“…Notably, tectonic structures in the underthrust Indian basement (Fig. 1) clearly impact both the frontal fold geometry and Lesser Himalayan exhumation (Bollinger et al, 2004a;Gahalaut and Kundu, 2012;Godin and Harris, 2014). Also, in the hanging wall, the main South Tibetan grabens (Armijo et al, 1986) coincide with abrupt changes-by a few degrees-of both the convergence azimuth and strike of the MHT (Bollinger et al, 2004b) (Figs.…”

Section: Seismic Rupture Scenarios and Return Timementioning

confidence: 96%

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Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Bollinger

Tapponnier

Sapkota

et al. 2016

Earth Planets Space

109

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In 1255, 1344, and 1408 AD, then again in 1833, 1934, and 2015, large earthquakes, devastated Kathmandu. The 1255 and 1934 surface ruptures have been identified east of the city, along comparable segments of the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT). Whether the other two pairs of events were similar is unclear. Taking into account charcoal's age inheritance, we revisit the timing of terrace offsets at key sites to compare them with the seismic record since 1200 AD. The location, extent, and moment of the 1833 and 2015 events imply that they released only a small part of the regional slip deficit on a deep thrust segment that stopped north of the Siwaliks. By contrast, the 1344 or 1408 AD earthquake may have ruptured the MFT up to the surface in central Nepal between Kathmandu and Pokhara, east of the surface trace of the great 1505 AD earthquake which affected western Nepal. If so, the whole megathrust system in Nepal broke in a sequence of earthquakes that lasted less than three centuries, with ruptures that propagated up to the surface from east to west. Today's situation in the Himalayan seismic sequence might be close to that of the fourteenth century.

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Section: Seismic Rupture Scenarios and Return Timesupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Seismic Rupture Scenarios and Return Timementioning

confidence: 96%

Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Bollinger

Tapponnier

Sapkota

et al. 2016

Earth Planets Space

109

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“…The regions in which these high topography features subduct are either regions of low friction or regions in which, as a result of the ploughing effect on the overriding Himalayan wedge, a network of faults and fractures develop. In both cases the incoming rupture front stops at these barriers (see Robinson et al 2006;Gahalaut & Kundu 2011;Wang & Bilek 2011 and references cited therein). Although transverse faults in the Himalaya with their possible origin in these ridges have occasionally produced earthquakes, e.g.…”

Section: Possibility Of the Occurrence Of An M W ∼9 Earthquake In Thementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Inset shows a north-south vertical cross-section across the Himalayan arc. Modified after Gahalaut & Kundu (2011). MFT, main frontal thrust; MBT, main boundary thrust; MCT, main central thrust.…”

Section: Global Occurrence Of M W 9 Earthquakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This width varies from 80 to 120 km along the Himalayan arc, except in the Kashmir region where none of the three entities is well defined. The Himalayan arc seems to be punched by the aseismic ridges on the underthrusting Indian plate (Berger et al 2004;Gahalaut & Kundu 2011;Robert et al 2011;Mugnier et al 2013). The subduction of such ridges causes segmentation in the arc as they act as barriers to the incoming front.…”

Section: Possibility Of the Occurrence Of An M W ∼9 Earthquake In Thementioning

confidence: 99%

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Can an earthquake of M _w ∼9 occur in the Himalayan region?

Gupta¹,

Gahalaut²

2015

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It has been suggested that all of the Earth's subduction zones are capable of producing an M w 9 earthquake. Such a possibility has also been suggested for the Himalayan collisional arc. We examined recent and historical earthquakes in the Himalayan region and suggest that, in the past few hundred years, only great earthquakes (M w 8) have occurred in the region, the largest being the 1950 Assam earthquake with M w 8.6. Several aseismic ridges segment the Himalayan arc and these appear to have limited the extent of rupture in earthquakes of the past 200 years. There is also evidence of distributed deformation and out-of-sequence thrusting, where only part of the detachment participates in the accommodation of the convergence. We concluded that, although it is unlikely that an M w 9 earthquake could occur in the Himalaya, from the hazard point of view a great earthquake of M w 8 anywhere along the Himalayan arc could kill about one million people in the Himalaya and adjoining Indo-Ganga plains. As an example, a scenario developed for a hypothetical M w 8 earthquake occurring in the middle of the night at Mandi, close to the epicentre of the 1905 Kangra earthquake, predicts an estimated loss of one million human lives.

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Oblique convergence and slip partitioning in the NW Himalaya: Implications from GPS measurements

et al. 2014

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We report GPS measurements of crustal deformation across the Kashmir Himalaya. We combined these results with the published results of GPS measurements from the Karakoram fault system and suggest that in the Kashmir Himalaya, the motion between the southern Tibet and India plate is oblique with respect to the structural trend. We estimated this almost north-south oblique motion to be 17 ± 2 mm/yr, which is partitioned between dextral motion of 5 ± 2 mm/yr on the Karakoram fault system and oblique motion of 13.6 ± 1 mm/yr with an azimuth of N198°E in the northwest-southeast trending Kashmir Himalayan frontal arc. Thus, the partitioning of the India-Southern Tibet oblique motion is partial in the Kashmir Himalayan frontal arc. However, in the neighboring Nepal Himalaya, there is no partitioning; the entire India-Southern Tibet motion of 19-20 mm/yr is arc normal and is accommodated entirely in the Himalayan frontal arc. The convergence rate in the Kashmir frontal Himalaya is about 25% less than that in the Nepal Himalayan region. However, here the Karakoram fault system accommodates about 20% of the southern Tibet and Indian plate convergence and marks the northern extent of the NW Himalayan arc sliver. The Kaurik Chango rift, a north-south oriented seismically active cross-wedge transtensional fault appears to divide the sliver in two parts causing varying translatory motion on the Karakoram fault on either side of the Kaurik Chango rift.

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Possible influence of subducting ridges on the Himalayan arc and on the ruptures of great and major Himalayan earthquakes

Cited by 119 publications

References 73 publications

Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Can an earthquake of M _w ∼9 occur in the Himalayan region?

Oblique convergence and slip partitioning in the NW Himalaya: Implications from GPS measurements

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Possible influence of subducting ridges on the Himalayan arc and on the ruptures of great and major Himalayan earthquakes

Cited by 119 publications

References 73 publications

Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Slip deficit in central Nepal: omen for a repeat of the 1344 AD earthquake?

Can an earthquake of M w ∼9 occur in the Himalayan region?

Oblique convergence and slip partitioning in the NW Himalaya: Implications from GPS measurements

Contact Info

Product

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Can an earthquake of M _w ∼9 occur in the Himalayan region?