Potentially large post-1505 AD earthquakes in western Nepal revealed by a lake sediment record

Z. Ghazoui (), S. Bertrand, K. Vanneste, Y. Yokoyama, J. Nomade, A. P. Gajurel and P. A. van der Beek
Additional contact information
Z. Ghazoui: ISTerre, Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS
S. Bertrand: Ghent University
K. Vanneste: Royal Observatory of Belgium
Y. Yokoyama: The University of Tokyo
J. Nomade: ISTerre, Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS
A. P. Gajurel: Tribhuvan University
P. A. van der Beek: ISTerre, Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract According to paleoseismological studies, the last earthquake that ruptured the Main Frontal Thrust in western Nepal occurred in 1505 AD. No evidence of large earthquakes has been documented since, giving rise to the concept of a seismic gap in the central Himalaya. Here, we report on a new record of earthquake-triggered turbidites from Lake Rara, western Nepal. Our lake-sediment record contains eight possibly moderate-to-large earthquake-triggered turbidites during the last 800 years, three of which overlap in age with previously reported Mw ≥ 7 events in western Nepal. Shaking intensity modelling, together with instrumental records, suggests that near-field earthquakes (≤15 km) should have a minimum Mw 5.6, and regional earthquakes (≤80 km) a Mw > ~ 6.5, to trigger turbidites. We present a likely scenario that western Nepal may be as seismically active as central Nepal; however, more data are needed to revaluate the seismic risk in the central Himalaya.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10093-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10093-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10093-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().