This seismic crisis unfolds in the context of the India-Eurasia collision. The speed of convergence

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The Nepalese region affected by the earthquake of April 25, 2015 is part of the long seismic zone of the Himalayan front. It has been studied for more than five years by an international collaboration including French teams. These researchers had discovered surface ruptures of two large ancient earthquakes, those of 1255 and 1934, east of Kathmandu, far deemed "blind". They also identified the area between Kathmandu and Pokhara as the current highest-risk area in the Nepalese Himalayas, could rupture in the near future. Here are their detailed explanations.
Diagram of the collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates, with the fracture of the Himalayan front in the area of Nepal affected by the quake. The previous took place along this fracture. Geologists had two great ancient events connected to the same fault. Idé
The earthquake of magnitude 7.9 Mw (moment magnitude) that shook the region in the center of Kathmandu Nepal, Saturday, April 25, 2015 41 at 11 pm local time (6 am and 8 pm 11 TU 11 hours from Paris) occurred along the collision zone between India and Eurasian plates. This region is very studied, especially cooperation between Nepal, the EOS in Singapore vijesti and French teams seismotectonics CEA, IPGP and PDSI.
India and southern Tibet converge at a speed of about 17 to 21 mm per year along the Himalayas. The stresses accumulated by this convergence are released periodically during major earthquakes on the faults of the Himalayan front, as during earthquakes of Kashmir (Mw 7.6 in 2005), Assam (8.6 M in 1950), Bihar -Nepal (Mw 8.4 in 1934) or Kangra (Ms 7.8 in 1905). vijesti The event of 25 April, which killed more than 4,000 victims, is therefore vijesti a major continental quake, the largest that Nepal has known since 1934 that it had done so more than 15,000 victims. The balance of surface damage shows a set of collapsed buildings vijesti in Kathmandu. Many avalanches are reported into the high Himalayas.
The collision zone between India and Eurasia plates is bounded on the map of the region affected by the earthquake of magnitude 7.9 Mw of 25 April, vijesti whose epicenter is located east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. The aftershocks are distributed over a length of 150 km and a width of 50 km. L. Bollinger et al. Elements known on the earthquake
This seismic crisis unfolds in the context of the India-Eurasia collision. The speed of convergence between India and Eurasia is plus or minus 4 cm per year, about 2 cm per year are directly absorbed by the deformation of the front of the Himalayan chain, mainly in the frontal fault called MFT ( Main Frontal Thrust). The rest of the deformation is spread further north in Tibet, particularly on major strike-slip faults that cut the Tibetan plateau, also capable of generating large earthquakes, such as that of Kokoxili Mw 7.8 in 2001.
The epicenter is located halfway between Pokhara, one of the most important cities of the country and an important tourist center, vijesti and Kathmandu, Nepal's capital (latitude: 28.147 and longitude: 84.708 according to the USGS) . The depth of the hypocenter varies according to sources between vijesti 29 km (depth Scardec Geoscope) and less than 10 km (preliminary USGS). vijesti The earthquake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including two of Mw 6.6-6.7 in the epicentral area and north-east of Kathmandu, a dozen and many Mw Mw 5-6 4-5. The replicas are distributed over a length of 150 km and a width of 50 km, east of the epicenter. The mechanism of the earthquake at home, inferred from seismic analysis indicates a very flat overlapping plane (shallow dip from May to July ) northward direction N104 E.
Synthetic Cup Himalayan forehead showing vijesti the position of the Main Frontal Thrust which broke during the earthquake of 25 April. The ambient seismicity (magnitude 1-5) recorded in recent years, particularly vijesti at mid-crustal ramp is also shown. Figure modified from the article by L. Bollinger et al. published in the Journal of Geophysical Research in 2014 L. Bollinger et al.
The position and depth of the hypocenter and the distribution of replies suggest that the surface which has broken is around 150 km from east to west 50 km from north to south and would have spread west to east towards the area that had slipped during the 1934 earthquake, which could explain the severe damage in the Nepalese capital. This also suggests that the fault that ruptured on April 25 is likely the subhorizontal part of the MFT (see figure above). The expected displacements are probably several meters (for comparison displacements during