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Analysis of historical monuments damaged by the 2015 Nepal earthquake
Published in Koen Van Balen, Els Verstrynge, Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: Anamnesis, Diagnosis, Therapy, Controls, 2016
The 2015 earthquake caused 8712 deaths, a further 22493 injuries, and in total affected 8 million people over a third of Nepal's population (Khazai et al. 2015). Economic losses were estimated to be approximately $10 billion, or roughly half of Nepal's gross domestic product (Goda et al. 2015). However unlike the 1934 earthquake, which destroyed about 20% of the vernacular dwellings in Kathmandu, less than 1% of these structures were destroyed by the earthquake in 2015 (Galetzka et al. 2015). In fact, most destruction was limited to (historic) stone/brick masonry structures, while many reinforced concrete structures remained unharmed (Goda et al. 2015). Furthermore, taller masonry structures were found to have been more severely affected by the earthquake, with the Dharahara Tower (Fig. 3) completely collapsing despite having partially survived the earthquake in 1934 (Galetzka et al. 2015). The 2015 earthquake was caused by the unzipping of the lower edge of the locked portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) fault, over which the Himalayan wedge is thrust over India (Galetzka et al. 2015). The earthquake had an epicenter 80 km northwest of Kathmandu and a focal depth of 15 km, and the corresponding strong motion data was recorded by
Application of teleseismic receiver function in investigation of crustal thickness and Poisson's ratio
Published in Rajib Biswas, Recent Developments in Using Seismic Waves as a Probe for Subsurface Investigations, 2023
Monika Wadhawan, Devajit Hazarika, Sowrav Saikia
The collision and convergence created large-scale crustal shortening of ∼1500 km accommodated mainly by tectonic stacking of upper- and middle-crustal slabs on the northern margin of the Indian plate along several thrust sheets originating from the basal decollement of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) (Yin, 2006; Avouac, 2007). Moreover, collision followed by underthrusting of the Indian plate beneath Asia resulted in large lateral variations in crustal thickness and its composition. In addition, to tracing the depths of the subsurface features, it is essential to investigate the composition of the crust which is an important factor in the understanding of crustal growth in the Himalayas (Gansser, 1964; McKenzie and Sclater, 1971; Yin, 2006).
The infilled RC structures performance in the 25th April, 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake: Observations and dynamic characterization tests
Published in Claudio Modena, F. da Porto, M.R. Valluzzi, Brick and Block Masonry, 2016
H. Varum, N. Vila-Pouca, A. Furtado, J. Oliveira, A. Arêde, H. Rodrigues
On April 25 th of 2015 a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.8 Mw, with the epicenter located in Lamjung, Ghorkha's district, 75 km to the northwest of Kathmandu, and a focus depth of 8.2 km, caused around 9000 deaths, 23000 injuries and thousands of collapsed buildings. According to geologic reports, the earthquake occurred at the subduction of Main Himalayan Thrust, where it is observed that the main mega-thrust fault along northern India is pushing beneath Eurasia (Avouac et al., 2015). Some occasional situations were also reported in the surrounding areas of India, China, and Bangladesh.
Seismic hazard assessment of the Shillong Plateau using a probabilistic approach
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2020
Olympa Baro, Abhishek Kumar, Alik Ismail-Zadeh
The EHZ is located to the north of the SP-AVZ and comprises of the northeastern part of the Himalayan mountain range. The Himalayas originated approximately 60 Mya when the Indian plate started subducting under the Eurasian plate (Johnson and Alam 1991). The subduction led to the formation of thrust faults within the zone. Some of these faults are the Indus Suture Thrust (IST), the Main Central Thrust (MCT), and the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT). Some studies such as Mukhopadhyay (2011) suggest that several past earthquakes could be traced back to the Main Himalayan Thrust, located between the underthrusting Indian plate and the overlying Himalayas. However another school of thought exists which suggests that the MCT is presently in a dormant state (Ni and Barazangi 1984; Kayal 2014). Nevertheless, it is unequivocal that the northeastern section of the MCT and MBT have remained dormant, leading to the speculation of the existence of the Assam Gap (Khattri 1987), which is also called as the Northeast Seismic Gap (Mittal et al. 2012). It is also speculated that an earthquake of Mw8.5 might occur in this region of the seismic gap (Srivastava et al. 2015).
Near real-time spatial prediction of earthquake-induced landslides: A novel interpretable self-supervised learning method
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2023
Xuewen Wang, Xianmin Wang, Xinlong Zhang, Lizhe Wang, Haixiang Guo, Dongdong Li
The Tibetan Plateau is uplifted due to the collision of the Eurasian and Indian plates, which has pushed eastward the Bayan Har block, i.e. the eastern sub-block in the Tibetan Plateau (Tapponnier et al. 2001). This large-scale and continuous tectonic movement is the main reason for the frequent strong earthquakes. The study area (Figure 2) is characterized by abundant active faults, and the Xianshuihe fault zone, Longmenshan fault zone, and Anninghe fault zone constitute the well-known ‘Y-shaped’ fracture zone around the Bayan Har block (Wang, Li, and Meng 2015; Huang et al. 2022). These active faults were closely associated with the 7 catastrophic earthquakes occurring from 2008 to 2022. The NE-trending Longmenshan fault zone experienced the 2008 Wenchuan, 2013, and 2022 Lushan earthquakes. The 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake occurred at the intersection of the Huya, Tazang, and Minjiang faults on the eastern margin of the Bayan Har block, and the blind fault is subject to an eastern branch fracture in the East Kunlun fault zone (Xu et al. 2017). The Xianshuihe fault zone, northwest-oriented Ganzè fault, and Yushu fault form a huge left-slip fault system (Xianshuihe–Ganzè–Yushu fault system) (Xu, Xu, and Yu 2013b), and the 2010 Yushu earthquake took place in this complicated fault system. The spontaneous rupture of the Baogunao-Xiaohe fault was responsible for the 2014 Ludian earthquake, and the active fault is a secondary fracture attributed to a large-scale left-lateral and strike-slip fault system. The Main Himalayan thrust fault is located between the Eurasian and Indian plates and triggered the 2015 Gorkha earthquake (Elliott et al. 2016). Table 1 reports the 7 strike-slip or thrust earthquakes occurring from 2008 to 2022, and these earthquakes are studied in this work.