Hyderabad: The Himalayas remain one of the world’s most earthquake-prone regions as the Indian tectonic plate continues to push beneath Tibet at roughly 5 cm a year, building enormous underground stress, a recent study by Hyderabad’s National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) has found.The study, titled “Seismology Meets Gravity: Earthquake Depth Distributions and Gravity Anomalies in Himalaya–Tibet and Indian Subcontinent and Their Relations with Lithospheric Structure,” was conducted by Dr Ravi Kumar Muppidi of NGRI’s Gravity-Magnetic Studies Group and published in the journal Geophysics for Advancing Seismology.Researchers combined gravity measurements, earthquake records and satellite data to examine how the Indian plate behaves as it converges with the Eurasian plate. Rather than moving smoothly, the plate bends, tears and forms an uneven, tongue-like structure that plunges to depths of up to 100 km beneath Tibet.The study also found a sharp increase in crustal thickness across the region—from about 35 km in northern India to nearly 70 km beneath the Tibetan Plateau.Most Himalayan earthquakes occur at shallow depths of around 10–15 km, where brittle rocks can fracture suddenly under accumulated stress. Deeper earthquakes are more common in the Hindu Kush–Pamir and Indo-Burmese regions, where the Indian plate bends, tears or descends more steeply.The continuing collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates is the main driver of this seismic activity. Much of the accumulated stress is concentrated along the Main Himalayan Thrust, where locked sections can suddenly rupture and generate major earthquakes.The study also identified ancient buried ridges beneath the Ganga Basin—including the Delhi–Haridwar, Faizabad and Munger–Saharsa ridges—that extend towards the Himalayas. These structures can concentrate stress and divide the Himalayan front into distinct segments, influencing the distribution of earthquake risk.The findings help explain the continuing uplift of the Himalayas, the exceptionally thick crust beneath Tibet and the uneven pattern of seismic activity across the region. The researchers also found that the strong, cold rock of the Indian plate extends far north beneath Tibet.The team cautioned that a major earthquake on a locked section of the Main Himalayan Thrust could produce intense ground shaking, landslides and soil liquefaction, potentially causing widespread damage in the mountains and the densely populated Ganga Plain.The study does not predict when a particular earthquake will strike, but researchers said a better understanding of the plate’s structure and individual fault segments could improve seismic hazard assessment and preparedness across the Himalayan region.The researchers also clarified that recent earthquakes in Indonesia, Colombia and Venezuela are driven by separate geological processes and are not connected to Himalayan seismic activity.
