Devastating Earthquakes Are Priming The Himalaya For A Mega-Disaster
A study published January 3 in Nature Communications provides new evidence that, rather than releasing seismic tensions in the crust, the 2015 quake likely loaded the surrounding region for an even more destructive mega-earthquake, which could clock in at magnitudes of 8.5 or higher. Earthquakes in the Himalaya, however, present a curious puzzle: “When you look at the historical seismicity, it looks like you don’t have enough earthquakes to balance the energy that is accumulating because of this loading,” says Caltech’s Jean-Philippe Avouac, coauthor of the new study. Each moderate quake therefore builds up energy, eventually leading to a megaquake that cracks through to the surface once every 500 or 600 years, finally relaxing the region’s built-up strain. Only two Himalayan earthquakes in the past 500 years have definitely ruptured to the surface, one in 1934 and another in 1950, explains Roger Bilham, lead author of the 2017 study.
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com