Scientists Studying Himalayan Geologic Features Warned Against Major Earthquakes in the Region

Scientists who study the Himalayan geologic features and activities warned that the mountain range which separates Indian subcontinent plains from Tibetan Plateau is prime focus of the major earthquakes.

Stanford geophysicists announced that the range of Himalayas was formed and it remained active currently because of the collision activities in Indian and Asian continental plates.

For quite some time, it has been known to the scientists that subduction is going on in India under Asia. Subduction is a geological process during which an edge of the crustal plate forces below the edge of the other plate. Scientists had recently started studying difficulties involved in the volatile collision zone like this in detail, especially the fault which is separating the two plates, Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) declared.

In the previous observations it was found that comparatively uniform fault plane had sunk a few degrees towards North. In order the get a clear picture about this fault, the geophysics researchers at Stanford analysed data from 20 seismometers which were deployed for around 2 years across Himalayas.

The data produced an image of the thrust which was dipping around 2-4 degrees towards North. But along with that, it also revealed the segment which dipped rather sharply for 20 kilometres. This inclination is being assumed as the nucleation point for the massive earthquakes that might occur in Himalayas.

Even though the researchers emphasised that their research was focused on finding out the fault and not on prediction of the earthquake, but they found out that MHT has a history of earthquakes of magnitude 8 to 9 after every several hundred years. The researchers also added that the detection of water as well as magma around MHT showed which segments of thrust might burst when earthquake hits.

It is believed that the big thrust vault would perhaps burst southward towards the surface of the Earth. But significant rupture should not be expected towards the North.