Project Details
Description
The eastern Himalaya and its foreland have an active tectonics distinct from the rest of the Himalayan orogen. The Bhutan Himalaya are characterised by an apparent seismic gap and along its eastern and western borders by a dominantly strike slip deformation in a generally contractional tectonic setting. In addition, the Shillong Plateau to the south of Bhutan is the only elevated terrain outboard of the entire Himalayan orogen. The Plateau was affected by one of the largest known intraplate earthquakes in 1897. Despite this regional seismotectonic uniqueness little is known about the causes of the seismicity or the absence of it. Moreover, the geodynamic implications of the active tectonics in the Himalayan foreland have been only hypothesised so far. Answering these questions is highly pertinent for the evaluation of the seismic hazard in the area including Bhutan, and several states of India (Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and part of West Bengal), populated by over 46 million people and which possess a highly unsuitable infrastructure. We shell attempt to make progress in answering these questions by calculation of Coulomb stress transfer between source and receiver faults in the area. This work will include our recently acquired geophysical and seismic data, field observations and their thermal kinematic and geodynamic modelling. Finally, this work will contribute to the scientific and logistic planning of the upcoming geophysical campaigns across the Shillong Plateau.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 6/1/16 → 8/31/16 |
Funding
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung: US$10,459.00
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Geophysics
- Geology