The occurrences of moderate to large magnitude earthquakes and associated subsurface geological processes were critically examined in the backdrop of Indian plate obliquity, stress obliquity, topography, and the late Tertiary regional tectonics for understanding the evolving dynamics and kinematics in the central part of the Himalayas. The higher topographic areas are likely associated with the zones of depressions, and the lower topographic areas are found around the ridges located in the frontal part of the orogen. A positive correlation between plate and stress obliquities is established for this diffuse plate boundary. We propose that the zone of sharp bending of the descending Indian lithosphere is the nodal area of major stress accumulation which is released occasionally in form of earthquakes. The lateral geometry of the Himalayas shows clusters of seismicity at an angle of ∼ 20 • from the centre part of the arc. Such spatial distribution is interpreted in terms of compression across the arc and extension parallel to the arc. This biaxial deformation results in the development of dilational shear fractures, observed along the orogenic belt, at an angle of ∼ 20 • from the principal compressive stress axis.

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The 2015 Mw 7.9 earthquake occurred in the Nepal Himalaya between the Indian and Asian plates. The gravity modelling has been carried out along a 2D trench-orthogonal profile passing through the epicentre of this earthquake. The projections of mainshocks and aftershocks show their major confinement around the bending segment of the Indian upper crust (IUC). The operative shallowly plunging maximum compressive stress led to the accumulation of strain energy around the bending zone of the IUC, and triggered thrust-dominated southward movement of the Indian crustal block along a shallowly, dipping shear plane in the anisotropic layer. This can be broadly explained by three-stage rupture processes: the first one was associated with slow nucleation and rupture growth for early ~15 sec, the second one migrated upward, rupturing the uppermost part of the IUC for the next ~10 sec, and the third one propagated very fast during deformation for the remaining ~25 sec till the fracture-tip reached the overlying brittle Asian crust.