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Nepal earthquake: Waiting for the complete rupture
[...] "In the 2015 quake, there was only a partial rupture of the major Himalayan fault separating the two continental plates. The frontal, near-surface section of the rupture zone, where the Indian Plate subducts beneath the Eurasian Plate, did not slip and remains under stress," explains Dal Zilio, lead author of the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Normally, a major earthquake releases almost all the stress that has built up in the vicinity of the focus as a result of displacement of the plates. "Our model shows that, although the Gorkha earthquake reduced the stress level in part of the rupture zone, tension actually increased in the frontal section close to the foot of the Himalayas. The apparent paradox is that 'medium-sized' earthquakes such as Gorkha can create the conditions for an even larger earthquake," says Dal Zilio.
Tremors of the magnitude of the Gorkha earthquake release stress only in the deeper subsections of the fault system over lengths of 100 kilometres. In turn, new and even greater stress builds up in the near-surface sections of the rupture zone.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:40AM
The Cascadia Subduction Zone lies in the Pacific near the west coasts of Vancouver Island, Washington and Oregon. Every 450 to 600 years it results in a Magnitude 9 Earthquake. That's geologist talk for "real bad".
It is well-known that all three coast will be inundated by a one-hundred forty foot Tsunami but as there is money to be made, no one is moving away from the coast.
That the last quake with 300 years ago leads to what I regard as a completely unwarranted sense of safety; we can really only predict quakes just a few minutes in advance.
As for me, I've been stockpiling water, canned goods and dried beans. I'll be adding rice when I can find a shop that sells large sacks of the brown kind. I really like what the Tacquerias use for burritos, so I'll ask a friend who is a waitress.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]