Indian scientists have confirmed that the April 25 Nepal earthquake can cause propagation of stresses on adjacent segments of the fault and future damaging quakes.
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata have made an extensive study of the April 25 Nepal earthquake and its aftershocks. The study has been published in the latest edition of Current Science.
“The last major event in the central Himalayas occurred 81 years ago and has no instrumental records. From a knowledge of the strain energy, annually accumulated in the entire 2,200 km long and 100 km wide Himalayan locked zone and comparing it with those released by all Himalayan earthquake with a magnitude greater than six, since 1500 AD, it was found that two-thirds of the accumulated energy still remains to be released. This excess stored energy is capable of driving a few magnitude of 8.2-8.6 earthquakes in the Himalayas,” they said.
The earthquake caused the Himalayas to lurch south-westward by around 4.8 m over the Indian plate. The study highlights that other segments of the Himalayas have significant unrelieved elastic strain which may rupture in similar greater quakes in the future.
