Stalagmite growth perturbations from the Kumaun Himalaya as potential earthquake recorders

Rajendran, C. P.; Sanwal, Jaishri; Morell, Kristin; Sandiford, Mike; Kotlia, Bahadur Singh; Hellström, John; Rajendran, Kusala

doi:10.1007/s10950-015-9545-5

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…These features have been used as proxies to develop the chronology for the long‐term seismic activities (e.g., Kagan, Agnon, Bar‐Matthews, & Ayalon, ; Šebela, ). Studies on the growth perturbations registered on the stalagmites from some selected caves of the central Himalaya provided additional palaeoseismic constraints (Rajendran, Sanwal, et al, ).…”

Section: Geological Constraints On the Earthquakes From The Central Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Uranium–Thorium (U–Th) age data from the specimens from the Dharamjali Cave (29° 31′ 27.8″N, 80° 12′ 40.3″ E) near Pithoragarh (Figure a) in the Kumaun Himalaya (eastern sector of Indian central Himalaya) allow us to bracket the intervals of growth anomalies (Rajendran, Sanwal, et al, ). The growth anomalies within the stalagmite specimens were dated at 4273 ± 410 year BP (2673–1853 BCE), 2782 ± 79 year BP (851–693 BCE), 2498 ± 117 year BP (605–371 BCE), 1503 ± 245 year BP (262–752 CE), 1346 ± 101 year BP (563–765 CE), and 687 ± 147 year BP (1176–1470 CE).…”

Section: Geological Constraints On the Earthquakes From The Central Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Footprints of an elusive mid‐14th century earthquake in the central Himalaya: Consilience of evidence from Nepal and India

Rajendran

Sanwal

John³

et al. 2018

Geological Journal

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The timing and size of the last great earthquake in the central Himalaya continues to excite scientific controversy, despite a decade of palaeoseismological investigations. The studies along the frontal thrust in the Indian part of the central Himalaya disclose a faulting event between 14th and 15th century, and a dominant view presupposes the 1505 CE earthquake as the likely source. Here we evaluate the database along with independent inputs to determine the timing of the last faulting event on the frontal thrust of the central Himalaya. From the historical perspective, the Nepalese archives make a direct reference to a significant earthquake in 1344 CE, and the Indian sources hint at a restoration phase for the mid‐14th century monuments in the northern plains and coeval destruction to the ancient temples in the central Himalaya. Aside from the constraints generated from the earthquake proxies including liquefaction features and deformed stalagmites, the previous and currently acquired geological data from multiple trenches across the frontal thrust show that the last faulting event occurred between 13th and 14th centuries—the time interval coinciding with the 1344 CE earthquake. The episodic valley fills debris flow depositions identified in the Pokhara Valley in the east‐central Nepal provide additional constraints for the 1344 CE earthquake along with two previous ones in 1255 and 1100 CE. The consilience of multiple pieces of evidence from India and Nepal in combination with the new data inputs from two trench locales implicates the 1344 CE as the last of the medieval sequence of earthquakes. With a rupture length of ~600 km of the central Indian Himalaya and an average slip of 15 m, this earthquake is consistent with moment magnitude of Mw ≥8.5. An earthquake of similar size is overdue in this part of the Himalaya, considering the long elapsed time of ≤700 years.

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Section: Geological Constraints On the Earthquakes From The Central Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Geological Constraints On the Earthquakes From The Central Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Footprints of an elusive mid‐14th century earthquake in the central Himalaya: Consilience of evidence from Nepal and India

Rajendran

Sanwal

John³

et al. 2018

Geological Journal

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“…The U-Th age data from three specimens help in bracketing the dates of growth anomalies. These were dated at 4273±410 years BP (2673-1853 BCE), 2782±79 years BP (851-693 BCE), 2498±117 years BP (605-371 BCE), 1503±245 years BP (262-752 CE), 1346±101 years BP (563-765 CE), and 687±147 years BP (1176-1470 CE) (Rajendran et al, 2016a). The dates may correspond to the timings of major/ great earthquakes in the region and the youngest event (1176-1470 CE) may chronologically correspond with either one of the great medieval earthquakes (1050-1250 and 1259-1433 CE) evident from trench excavations along the MFT.…”

Section: Garhwal and Kumaun Himalayamentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoseismological Studies in India (2016-2020): Status and Prospects

Rajendran¹,

Singh²,

Mukul³

et al. 2020

PINSA

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The last few years have witnessed consistent growth in paleoseismic investigations and active fault research in India. An overview of relevant publications during 2016-2020 indicates that this field is now widely accepted as a tool to characterize the seismic hazard in the country. Such studies initiated in the country in early nineties have gained momentum and widened its scope into a variety of tectonic and morphological settings.While earthquake frequency and fault activations are major objectives of such studies, the Indian researchers are now equally interested in constraining the fault geometry and the nature of near-surface crustal deformation, thereby contributing to earthquake hazard evaluations. This has been driven by an ever-increasing interaction between experts from associated fields like geomorphology, neotectonics, seismology, geodesy, modeling etc. Future challenges would include integrating the paleoseismological observations with the relevant geophysical inputs to develop physical models of the earthquake cycles, ultimately leading to an inventory of the active faults. Although there are gaps and disagreements on how things operated at different spatial and temporal scales, there have been broad agreements in general. The future should focus on evolving new strategies and methodologies to integrate different datasets in a coherent manner to yield practically relevant results and models that can explain data from various spatial and temporal scales.

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“…The Central Indian Himalaya features natural caves between major active thrusts forming potential storehouses for paleoseismological records. Rajendran et al (2016a) focuses on the stalagmites from the caveslocated in the eastern Kumaun Himalaya. The growth anomalies instalagmites include abrupt tilting or rotation of growth axes, growth termination, and breakage followed by regrowth.…”

Section: Research Activities During 2010-2016mentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoseismology: 2010-2016

Rajendran¹

2016

Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy

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We present here an overview of progress in paleoseismological/active fault researches in India during 2010-2016. These studies initiated in the country in early nineties have now expanded in scope and gained further momentum. Moving into a greater variety of morphological settings, several groups of researchers are now involved in defining the fault geometry and the nature of near-surface crustal deformation in various tectonic regimes with a view to constrain the frequency and magnitude of fault activations, thereby contributing to earthquake hazard evaluations. Future challenges would include integrating paleoseismological observations with relevant geophysical inputs and developing physical models of the complete earthquake cycle, ultimately leading to an inventory of active faults.

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Stalagmite growth perturbations from the Kumaun Himalaya as potential earthquake recorders

Cited by 22 publications

References 48 publications

Footprints of an elusive mid‐14th century earthquake in the central Himalaya: Consilience of evidence from Nepal and India

Footprints of an elusive mid‐14th century earthquake in the central Himalaya: Consilience of evidence from Nepal and India

Paleoseismological Studies in India (2016-2020): Status and Prospects

Paleoseismology: 2010-2016

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