Himalayan Earthquakes

See map of the Himalaya showing the locations of these events and inferred gaps between great earthquakes that are believed to be overdue. This page provides references to Himalayan earthquakes.

≈1100 Lave et al.,2003 The date of this event is estimated from a spread of ages 1125±50 years.

1255 Kathmandu Valley "1/3 of the Kingdom of Nepal perished" The only report of this earthquake is from the Kathmandu valley which at that time may have hosted 100,000 people (Campbell, December 1833).

1408 Kathmandu. "A tremendous earthquake was felt in Nepal. The temple of Machchhinddrananatha and all other buildings fell down and innumerable human beings perished (12th of Bhadra Sudi, Sambat 528 )" Wright 1877. It is possible that this earthquake caused rupture of the Himalaya west of Dehra Dun. Several trench excavations reveal a frontal surface rupture at about this time (Kumar et al, 2001). It is also possible that the surface slip recorded in these trench excavations occurred in the 1505 earthquake mentioned below.

6 June 1505 Southern Tibet, Agra and northen Ganga Plain region - (Iyengar and Sharma, 1998, Ambraseys and Jackson, 2003). This earthquake destroyed monasteries in southern Tibet between the Mustang region of Nepal and the region north of Agra suggesting that it may have been a great earthquake that occurred in the present central seismic gap of the Himalaya. See Ambraseys and Jackson, for a recent appraisal of this event. If this was the last earthquake to occur here, approximately 9 m of slip is currently available to drive a recurrence of this earthquake. A major earthquake occurred one month earlier in Kabul. A surface break accompanied this earthquake (Lave and Yule, personal communication 2009).

1555 Srinigar 600 fatalities damaged numerous locations along in the Kashmir region. p.15 (60,000 fatalities are reported on p.14 Iyengar and Sharma, 1998). A survey of damage to temples in the Kashmir valley sheds no light on the timing of this damage.

1767 Kathmandu valley. "Twenty one shocks of earthquake felt in 24 hours on the 1st of Asarh Sudi (Wright, 1877)

1803 1 Sept Kumaon -coincided with the outbreak of the third Maratha Wars.

1808 or 1810 Kathmandu Valley. 10th of Jeth Sudi (NS930) a violent earthquake occurred and many houses fell down. The great temples escaped injury but "in Bhatgoan numerous lives were lost".

1823 Kathmandu valley. Seventeen shocks in one day and one night (Wright, 1877)

1833 30 Sept Nepal 500 deaths. Loss of life in this earthquake was small because two (4 according to Wright, 1877, p.271, who likens the event to the 1408 earthquake) large foreshocks brought people from their homes hours before the mainshock (see Bilham, 1995). Intensities from this sequnce of earthquakes have been subsequently re-assessed by Ambraseys and Douglas, and by Martin and Szeliga (2009)

1834 Kathmandu Valley (Wright, 1877)

1876 Shillong Appendix III by H.St. P. Maxwell, in Gait 1897.
"in 1876 cracked the arches of the brick buildings in North Lakhimpur, and in 1885 a very similar earthquake happened when I was stationed in Tura, Garo Hills, which completely leveled the stone built treasury and police quarterguard. In other respects these earthquakes did no damage."

1897 12 June 1897 Bengal/Assam M=8.11542 deaths. Note this earthquake did not occur in the Himalaya but beneath the Shillong Plateau. The link explains what is probably certain about this earthquake, and indicates problems with recent speculation. For earthquake details see Oldham (1898). For mechanism see Bilham & England 2001. Official government report by Gait 1897 is extracted below.

Report on the Earthquake of the 12th June 1897, From E. A. Gait, Offg. Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam to the Secretary of the Government of India, Home Department, No 5409G,A.S.P.O. (Genl.), No 282-850-18-8-97. Pages 1-72. Shillong 14 August 1897. Cost of repairing public buildings 35 lakhs (annual budget typically 14 lakhs) Excluding the repair of railway and telegraph. 'Low number of fatalities caused by afternoon event just after heavy rain." District fatality list follows:

Khasi and Jainta hills 916
Sylhet 545
Kamrup 29
Garo Hills 27
Darrang 12
Goalpara 5
Nowgong 3
Cachar 3
Sibsagar 2
Total 1542

1905 Kangra M=7.8. Approximately 20,000 deaths (Middlemiss (1905 ), Holland (1906) and Middlemiss et al. (1910) mention 20,000 fatalities, and Baduwi (1905) mentions 20,000-25,000). For geodetic leveling interpretation and explanation of why previous articles on this earthquake are flawed, see Bilham (2001). For recalibrated magnitude see Ambraseys and Bilham 2000. For explanation for high intensities near Dehra Dun caused by a triggered subevent see Hough et al. 2006. For re-assessment of rupture parameters from geodesy see Wallace et al., 2006.

1934 Bihar/Nepal M=8.1approximately 10,500 deaths (see Dunn et al 1934). The epicenter of the earthquake was some 10 km south of Mt. Everest, despite numerous reports2 that cite Gutenburg and Richter's inaccurate location near Bihar.

A report on the Bihar Earthquake and on the measures taken in consequence thereof up to the 31st December 1934. W.B. Brett, Relief Commissioner, Bihar and Orissa. Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and Orissa, Patna, 1935. Total number of deaths (in Bihar): 7253

See Pandey and Molnar, for effects of the 1934 event in Nepal. See Dunn et al for the damage in India.

1950 Assam. This magnitude M8.5-8.7 earthquake was the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the Himalaya. It occurred at its easternmost end probably with both thrust aqnd strike slip components. The number of deaths was small due to to the type of construction, and the low population in the region. It was not well studied at the time (no surface break was sought) but new intensity data have recently been reported from Tibet. A Chinese account of the earthquake translated from Tibetan records has been translated into English with funding from CIRES, University of Colorado. The html version may not show Chinese characters correctly - try word document (if you have the appropriate character set.)

1988 Udaypur, Nepal approximately 6500 deaths (Dikshit and Koirala,1989)

1991 Uttarkashi (see Thakur and Kumar,1994)

References

Arya, A. S., 1992, Possible effects of a major earthquake in Himachal Pradesh, Seismology in India, Current Science, 62, 251-256.

Baduwi M.A.Q.S.T., in Urdu. Earthquakes of India: in which the Events of the 4 Apr 1905 Earthquake in North India and all of India and other countries are described" by Munshi Muhamad Abdul Quadir Sahib Ta'ib Baduwi, proprietor of the Army press of Mount Shimla, 1905, courtesy of Munshi Meeran Bukhsh, his printer, Translated from the original Urdu by Muneeb Cheema, CIRES, University of Colorado, June-Oct 1998

Baird-Smith, R. 1843, Memoir on Indian Earthquakes, Pt. II, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, Vol. 12(2), New Series, 136, 1029-1056.

Baird-Smith, R., 1844, Memoir on Indian Earthquakes, Pt. III, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, Vol. 156, 964-983.

Bapat, A, Kulkarni, R. C. and S. K. Guha, 1983, Catalog of Earthquakes in India and Neighborhood from historical period up to 1979, Ind. Soc. Earthq. Tech. Roorkee, pp. 211.

Bilham, R., Location and magnitude of the 1833 Nepal earthquake and its relation to the rupture zones of contiguous great Himalayan earthquakes, Current Science, 69(2), 155-187, 25 July 1995.

Campbell, A, 1833, Earthquake of the 26 August, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 2, Misc. IX, 438-439, August 1833

Campbell, A, 1833, Further particulars of the Earthquake in Nepal, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 2, Misc. VI, 636-639, Dec. 1833

Dikshit, A.M. and A. Koirala, Report on the Intensity mapping of Udaypur Earthquake of 20 August 1988. HMG Ministry of Industry, Dept. of Mines and Geology, Lainchaur, Kathmandu May 1989

Dunn, J. A., J. B. Auden, A. M. N. Gosh and S. C. Roy, 1939 (reprinted 1981), The Bihar-Nepal Earthquake of 1934, Mem. Geol. Soc. of India, Survey of India, Calcutta. 73, pp. 391.

Gait, E. A. ,Report on the Earthquake of the 12th June 1897. Home Department, No 5409G,A.S.P.O. (Genl.), No 282-850-18-8-97. Pages 1-72. Shillong 14 August 1897.

Iyengar R. N. and Shri Devendra Sharma, Earthquake History of India in Medieval Times, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee 247 667, July 1998 pp 124.

Middlemiss, C. S., 1910, The Kangra Earthquake of 4 April 1905. Mem. Geol. Soc. of India, 38, pp. 409, Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta.

Middlemiss, C. S 1905, Preliminary account of the Kangra Earthquake of 4th April 1905, Mem. Geol. Soc. of India, 32, Pt.4 , 258-294, Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta.

Holland, T. H., 1906, General Report of the Geological Survey of India, Seismology, Mem. Geol. Soc. of India, 33, Pt.2, 81-85, Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta.

Molnar, P., 1984, Structure and tectonics of the Himalaya: Constraints and implications of geophysical data, Ann. Rev. of Earth and Planetary Sci., 12, 489-518.

Molnar, P., 1990, A review of the Seismicity and the Rates of active underthrusting and the deformatation at the Himalaya, J. Himalayan Geol., 1, 131-154.

Molnar. P and M. R. Pandey, 1989, Rupture zones of great earthquakes in the Himalayan Region. Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., (Earth and Plan. Sci.) 98, 61-70.

Molnar, P., 1987, The Distribution of Intensity Associated with the 1905 Kangra Earthquake anmd Bounds on the Extent of the Rupture Zone. J. Geol. Soc. India, 29, 221-229.

Molnar, P., 1987, The Distribution of Intensity Associated with the Great 1897 Assam Earthquake and Bounds on the Extent of the Rupture Zone. J. Geol. Soc. India, 30, 13-27.

Oldham, R. D., 1899 (1981 reprint), Report on the Great Earthquake of 12 June 1897, Mem. Geol. Soc. of India, 29, pp. 379. Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta.

Oldham, T., 1883, Catalog of Indian earthquakes, Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 19, 163-215, Geol. Surv. India, Calcutta.

Pandey, M. R. and P. Molnar, 1988, The distribution of Intensity of the Bihar Nepal earthquake of 15 January 1934 and bounds on the extent of the rupture, J. Nepal Geol. Soc, 5, 22-44.

Thakur V. C. and S. Kumar, Seismotectonics of the 20 October 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake in Garhwal, Himalaya, North India, Terra Nova, 6, 90-94, 1994.