| Session Details | |
| Section | SE - Solid Earth Sciences |
| Session Title | Active Tectonics - Active Faults and Large Earthquake Generation in the Asian Region |
| Main Convener | Dr. Sushil Kumar (Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, India) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Sudhir Rajaure (Department of Mines and Geology, Nepal) Prof. Rama Sushil (DIT University, India) |
| Session Description | On -going convergence of the Indian and pacific plates against the Asian landmass has produced devastating earthquakes. The faults generating very large earthquake may appear as surface ruptures or may remain blind within the crust. It is important to identify seismogenic faults and to understand their nature and kinematics. There are many faults which have been identified as associated with the large earthquake. Whereas several other faults may be identified as having potential to be reactivated in the recurrence interval of say 500-1000 years. Data generated through local and regional seismicity monitoring has helped in identifying the seismogenic faults. Paleoseismic studies have indicated the amount of displacement on the active faults and recurrence interval of large earthquakes. Active faults may have varying geomorphic expressions in different tectonic environments. The mapping of active faults is also an important aspect. Identification of active faults and understanding their kinematic behavior vis-a vis seismicity has direct societal relevance in earthquake hazard reduction. The session invites all recent findings in active tectonics that focuses on the studies of active faults through seismicity, GPS, Remote Sensing, GIS, paleoseismology and tectonic geomorphology. Recently, a series of unusual earthquake phenomena is under investigation like slow earthquake, these are earthquake like event that releases energy over a period of hours to months, rather than the seconds to minutes characteristic of a typical earthquake. This unusual earthquake phenomenon includes deep episodic tremor, low-frequency earthquakes, very-low-frequency earthquakes and slow slip events. Each of these has been demonstrated to arise from shear slip, just as do regular earthquakes, but with longer characteristic durations and radiating much less seismic energy. Slow seismic events may be useful for better understanding of the plate subduction process and large earthquake generation. Especially those regions where stress is accumulating but no major or great earthquake have triggered from long time considered under seismic gap & seismologists speculating large earthquake in such regions. In this session, we welcome papers on slow earthquakes. During the fast earthquakes now various necessary information on the kinematics and dynamics of earthquakes are available. In many recent large earthquakes such information includes slip evolution, frictional properties during faulting, fault system geometry and the structure of fault zones. This provides the fundamental knowledge base with which to build an ‘earthquake mechanism’ capable of simulating the earthquake generation process and cycles of earthquake activity. In this session, we welcome papers earthquake simulation models as well as aiming to provide insight on the kinematics and dynamics of earthquake generation and cycles. Seismic waves generated by earthquakes have been interpreted to provide us information about the earth’s structure across a variety of scales. Seismic tomography is promising tool to evolve various heterogeneous structure. In this session, we welcome papers on evolving earth’s crustal and upper mantle structure. |