Strong earthquake strikes Assam – Temblor.net

A major earthquake struck residents of Assam and neighboring states on Wednesday. The aftershocks continued to shake the area.

Written by Akash Kharita, Indian Institute of Technology, Rourke, Tumblr’s scholarly writing expert

Quotation: Kharita, A. , 2021, strong earthquake strikes Assam, Temblor, http://doi.org/10.32858/temblor.171

A strong earthquake struck the northeastern Indian state of Assam Wednesday morning at 7:51 a.m. local time. The National Center of Seismology (NCS), the Indian agency responsible for monitoring earthquakes across a regional network of seismic stations, has determined that the magnitude 6.4 event strikes 4.8 miles (7.7 km) northwest of Dikyaguli city and 26.7 miles (43 kilometers) west of Tizpur, A town on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. The NCS reported that the earthquake occurred at a depth of 10.5 miles (17 kilometers). The United States Geological Survey and the European Center for Seismology in the Mediterranean both reported that the event was recorded as a magnitude 6.0 earthquake. They calculated this magnitude using teleseismic data collected from stations located more than 620 miles (1,000 km) from the earthquake.

Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 and greater in Assam and the surrounding region (January 1960 – March 2020), along with the main tremor on April 28. Credit: National Seismology Center

Nearly 70 aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 2.3 to 4.9, were detected by the NCS within a day after the main shock. These earthquakes appear to be roughly in line with the northwest and southeast direction near the main tremor. After large earthquakes, aftershocks are common, and they become less frequent over time.

Assam’s Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sunwal, urged people to stay alert. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also assured those in the region that the Indian central government would provide all possible assistance.

So far, there are no immediate reports of casualties, although several videos show severe damage to infrastructure in Guwahati City, Tizpur Town and Bengal State.

An earthquake in the foothills of the Himalayas

Assam is located in the northeastern part of India, and lies south of the mountainous state of Bhutan and the rugged Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. However, Assam is feeling the effects of the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates that drive the mountains. The southernmost Himalayan thrust fault – the type of fault that built the Himalayan mountain range in succession by pushing Eurasia over India – defines the boundary between the two plates. The surface expression of these boundaries, called the Himalayan frontal interchange or major forward thrust, runs through the northern part of Assam and has hosted many major earthquakes in the past, while relatively minor faults plaster the state in different directions.

Shillong Plateau, which is located in the south of Assam, complicates the region compared to other parts of the Himalayan mountain range. According to Byron Adams, Dorothy Hodgkin’s Fellow at the Royal Society at the University of Bristol, “The Indian plate behind the Shillong Plateau, which includes Assam, is likely to have low flexural strength, so it does not bend easily under the burden of either the dominant Eurasian plate or sediments from rivers.” That drains the range. ” Instead, this portion of the Indian plate breaks apart, with many defects cutting the area at irregular angles, he says. “There may be more heterogeneity in the east Indian crust, so when the plate attempts to subduct, it breaks rather than bending, which leads to more northwestern fissures between the Himalayan range and the Shillong plateau.”

Due to the numerous energetic faults that intersect the region, the NCS ranks this region within its region of highest seismic risk (Zone 5).

Earthquake Hazard Areas in India. Credit: PlaneMad / Wikimedia

Copelly’s error

The main tremor likely struck near the Koppeli Fault, according to a preliminary analysis by NCS. This fault is heading northwest and southeast, indicating that it is a “minor” fault, although it is still capable of causing significant seismic activity. Scientists believe that this fault hosted the 7.5-magnitude Chakar earthquake in 1869 and the 7.3-magnitude Hajwi earthquake in 1947 (Sutar et al., 2017). This error may have played a role in the 1941 event with a magnitude of 6.5 (Kayal et. Al., 2010).

According to Suprio Mitra, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata Observatory for Seismology, the Kobili Fracture is in a right-sided sliding motion, which means that the northeastern side of the fault is moving to the southeast along a steep slope. Error surface. For reference, this is the same feeling of movement along the iconic San Andreas Fault. As the Shillong Plateau moves northward, Mitra says, this movement may be absorbed by the Kobele Fault Zone.

Adams notes that the focal mechanism produced by the United States Geological Survey indicates an intrinsic thrust element, along with a right sideways movement. “If you put some right lateral shear on those northwestern directional faults between the Himalayan mountain range and the Shillong Plateau, you might expect something like what just happened in Assam.”

References

Kayal, JR, Sergei S. Arefiev, Saurabh Baruah, Ruben Tatevossian, Naba Gogoi, Manichandra Sanoujam, JL Gautam, Devajit Hazarika, and Dipak Borah. “In 2009, Bhutan and Assam felt an earthquake (MW 6.3 and 5.1) in the Kobili Fault in the Northeast Himalayas.” Geomatics, Natural Hazards, and Hazards 1, no. 3 (2010): 273-281.

National Meteorological Center Report on the April 28, 2021 (M 6.4) Earthquake, Suntpur, Assam, https://seismo.gov.in/sites/default/files/pressrelease/Assam_EQ_Report_28Apr2021.pdf

Sutar, AK, Verma, M., Pandey, AP, Bansal, BK, Prasad, PR, Rao, PR, & Sharma, B. (2017). Assessment of the maximum likelihood of an earthquake in the Kobili Fault Zone in northeastern India and robust simulation of ground motion. Asian Geosciences Journal, 147, 439-451.

Further reading

Clark, M.K., and Pelham, R. (2008). The rise of the Shillong Plateau from the Miocene and the beginning of the end of the Eastern Himalayas. Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters, 269 (3-4), 337-351.

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