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Originally published in Science Express on 29 November 2001
Science 14 December 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5550, pp. 2328 - 2331
DOI: 10.1126/science.1066195
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Research Articles

Earthquake Recurrence and Rupture Dynamics of Himalayan Frontal Thrust, India

Senthil Kumar,1* Steven G. Wesnousky,1 Thomas K. Rockwell,2 Daniel Ragona,2 Vikram C. Thakur,3 Gordon G. Seitz4

The Black Mango fault is a structural discontinuity that transforms motion between two segments of the active Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) in northwestern India. The Black Mango fault displays evidence of two large surface rupture earthquakes during the past 650 years, subsequent to 1294 A.D. and 1423 A.D., and possibly another rupture at about 260 A.D. Displacement during the last two earthquakes was at minimum 4.6 meters and 2.4 to 4.0 meters, respectively, and possibly larger for the 260 A.D. event. Abandoned terraces of the adjacent Markanda River record uplift due to slip on the underlying HFT of 4.8 ± 0.9 millimeters per year or greater since the mid-Holocene. The uplift rate is equivalent to rates of fault slip and crustal shortening of 9.6-3.5+7.0 millimeters per year and 8.4-3.6+7.3 millimeters per year, respectively, when it is assumed that the HFT dips 30° ± 10°.

1 Center for Neotectonic Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
3 Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 33, G. M. Singh Road, Dehra Dun 248001, UP, India.
4 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: senthil{at}seismo.unr.edu

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