The Nepal earthquake: Partial unzipping of
the Himalaya
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Nature Geoscience
Embargo
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London: Thursday 06 August 2015 19:00 (BST)
New York: Thursday 06 August 2015 14:00 (EDT)
Tokyo: Friday 07 August 2015 03:00 (JST)
Sydney: Friday 07 August 2015 04:00 (AEST)
The devastating Nepal earthquake released stress on only a portion of the Main Himalayan
Thrust fault, reports a study published online in Nature Geoscience. The research suggests
that the western portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust fault must now be closely monitored
because it has the potential to host a large earthquake in the future.
On 25 April 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck central Nepal, killing more than 9,000
people and flattening entire villages. The earthquake is thought to have occurred on the Main
Himalayan Thrust fault—a fault that has produced great earthquakes in the past. This fault
was known to be locked in places and accumulating stress with the potential to slip in a large
earthquake.
Jean-Philippe Avouac and colleagues use seismic and satellite data to reconstruct the
evolution of the April 2015 earthquake. They find that the quake initiated northwest of
Kathmandu and propagated about 140 km eastwards beneath the city, but did not reach the
surface. The earthquake unzipped the lower edge of the locked zone in the Main Himalayan
Thrust fault. However, parts of the fault farther west did not rupture and remain locked.
Furthermore, the earthquake may have transferred stresses into western and shallower parts
of the crust, which may help to facilitate future rupture of these regions.
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Article and author details
Corresponding Author:
Jean-Philippe Avouac
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Email: jpha2@cam.ac.uk Tel: +44 1223 337176
Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the
embargo ends): http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ngeo2518
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2518