KILLER QUAKE LIKELY: Fears Huge Tremor Which Killed 8,000 is COMING BACK Even Stronger

A DEVASTATING earthquake claiming around 8,000 lives last April left enough energy in the ground to fuel another huge natural disaster, scientists have warned.

Fourteen months ago a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck destroying buildings and moving the city 10 feet southwards.

But scientists say there could be worse around the corner.

There were more than 100 aftershocks, following the quake, but a study has shown there remains in the ground enough pent-up energy to cause another of a similar strength.

Scientists have found that the Himalayan region’s fault lines have not moved since 2015, meaning they are locked, accumulating further strain.

The study, to understand the aftermath of last year’s earthquake and vulnerability of the region, said strain built up in the region’s faults, could bring worse damage, if released quickly.

It was enabled after an international team of scientists set up a series of GPS receivers to monitor any movements and InSAR—interferometric synthetic aperture radar to look for changes to the Earth’s surface.

In the study, published in Nature Geoscience today, scientists show that the part of the fault that hadn’t moved since the earthquake remained completely locked, accumulating further strain.

They found that there had been 2.75 inches of afterslip north of the rupture and about 1 inch of afterslip to the south of the rupture.

But scientists reveal that there may be about 3.5 metres worth of strain built into this fault, which the post-earthquake movements did nothing to reduce.

An afterslip appears on the fault following the earthquake and increases the strain that loads the adjacent faults.

David Mencin, the lead author of the study, and a graduate student with Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Geological Sciences, said: “There was a clear lack of afterslip. That has implications for future great earthquakes, which can tap into this stored strain.”

CIRES fellow Roger Bilham, a co-author on the study and professor of geological sciences, observed the fault zone after taking a helicopter flight over the area following the quake.

The study further highlighted that historical earthquakes in the region in 1803, 1833, 1905 and 1947 also failed to rupture the surface of the Himalayan frontal faults and they, too, experienced a lack of large subsequent earthquakes.

The team’s research shows there’s significant strain throughout the region.

Mr Bilham said: “There’s no evidence that it will spontaneously rupture in another damaging earthquake,but the strain may fuel a future earthquake starting nearby.

“The entire Himalayan arc may host dozens of pockets of strain energy awaiting release in future great earthquakes.”

CP Rajendran, a paleo-seismologist at the Bengaluru-based Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, said: “The question is what will be the implications of this 2015 earthquake-generated unspent strain added onto the already existing accumulated strain in the Himalaya.

“Certainly this means that the central Himalaya is getting extremely prime for a big event.”

Mr Rajendran said to be more definitive, more understanding is needed about how such strain gets partitioned into various structures.

He said: “That said, all these studies agree that the unspent strain is fast building up in the Himalaya, raising our concern on impending big earthquakes.”