Reinvestigation reveals observations that do not support prior claims that the great Mw 8.4 Bihar‐Nepal earthquake produced surface rupture along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust of Nepal. While it may ...be viewed as reasonable to suggest that the Main Himalayan Frontal Thrust was the source of the 1934 Bihar‐Nepal earthquake on geophysical grounds, decisive and substantiating geological evidence that it produced surface rupture along the trace of the Himalayan Frontal Thrust remains lacking.
Plain Language Summary
Great earthquakes on continents such as the Mw 8.4 Bihar‐Nepal earthquake of 1934 are generally expected to produce ruptures along a fault trace where the causative fault intersects the ground surface. The 1934 earthquake for a long time remained enigmatic because surface ruptures were never reported until recently when investigators interpreted an outcrop along the Himalayan front to record such evidence. Our reinvestigation of the outcrop and presentation of new observations does not support their interpretation and so the enigma remains: there are no observations that clearly confirm that the 1934 earthquake produced surface rupture.
Key Points
Geologic evidence for surface rupture on the Himalayan Frontal Thrust during the great Mw 8.4 Bihar‐Nepal earthquake of 1934 remains lacking
Whether or not the 1934 event produced surface rupture remains a puzzle
The main ambition of this book lies in a detailed analysis of the formation and enforcement of Nepal’s Mulukī Ain of 1854, specifically focusing on the provisions regarding homicide within the Mulukī ...Ains of 1854 and 1870. This study also examines contemporaneous legal records, revealing the complexities of the Ain’s implementation. The articles on homicide serve as a microcosm illustrating the broader evolution of Nepal’s legal code, which departed from outdated punishments like genital mutilation and introduced fines and imprisonment instead. Still, the innovations introduced into the Ain of 1854 were not uniformly progressive. The Ain in its various stages of development thus showcases the complex ways in which legal systems inevitably undergo transformation.
Hauptziel dieses Buches ist eine detaillierte Analyse der Entstehung und Durchsetzung des nepalesischen Mulukī Ain von 1854, wobei das Hauptaugenmerk auf den Bestimmungen zum Mord innerhalb der Mulukī Ains von 1854 und 1870 liegt. Daneben untersucht die Studie auch zeitgenössische juristische Aufzeichnungen, die die Komplexität der Umsetzung des Ain aufzeigen. Die Paragraphen zu Tötungsdelikten dienen als Mikrokosmos, anhand derer sich die allgemeine Entwicklung des nepalesischen Rechtssystems veranschaulichen lässt. Dieses löste sich von veralteten Strafen wie der Genitalverstümmelung und führte stattdessen Geld- und Freiheitsstrafen ein. Dennoch sind die Neuerungen, die in das Ain von 1854 aufgenommen wurden, nicht durchweg fortschrittlich. Somit zeigt das Ain in seinen verschiedenen Entwicklungsstadien die komplexen Veränderungen, die Rechtssysteme unweigerlich durchlaufen.
This work examines the production and performance of theatrical activities aimed at bringing about social change in both development and political intervention in Nepal. If everyday social problems ...can be both represented and challenged through drama-based performances, then what differentiates street theatre performed in planned development from street theatre performed within social and political movements? This multi-sited ethnography attempts to answer this question by following the works of Aarohan Theatre – a Kathmandu-based professional company, performing both loktantrik natak (theatre for democracy) in the context of the 2005–06 popular movement, and kachahari natak (forum theatre) for development projects. The analysis then extends to the forum theatre produced by one of Aarohan's partner groups, the Kamlari Natak Samuha – a Tharu grass-roots activist organization based in Deukhuri Valley (West Nepal) campaigning against indentured child labour.
While various investigations have been driven on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and other flame retardants (FRs) in different framework around the world, information about contamination and ...fate of PBDEs and other FRs in developing countries especially in the Indian subcontinent is uncommon. Nepal being located in the Indian subcontinent, very little is known about contamination level of semi-volatile organic pollutants discharged into the environment. This motivated us to investigate the environmental fate of halogenated flame retardant (HFRs) in Nepalese condition. In this study, we investigated the concentration, fate, and sources of 9 PBDEs, 2 dechlorane plus isomers (DPs), and 6 novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs). Moreover, air-soil exchange and soil–air partitioning were also evaluated to characterize the pattern of air-soil exchange and environmental fate. In general, the concentrations of NBFRs in soil were more prevalent than PBDEs and DPs, and accounted 95% of ∑HFRs. By and large, the concentrations of NBFRs and DPs were measured high in Kathmandu, while PBDEs level exceeded in Pokhara. Principal component analysis (PCA) study suggested contributions from commercial penta-, octa-, and deca-BDEs products and de-bromination of highly brominated PBDEs as the significant source of PBDEs. Likewise, low fanti ratio suggested DPs in soil might have originated from long-range atmospheric transport from remote areas, while high levels of decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) in soil were linked with the use of wide varieties of consumer products. The estimated fugacity fraction (ff) for individual HFR was quite lower (<0.05) than equilibrium value, suggesting that deposition and net transport from air to the soil is overwhelming. Soil-air partitioning study revealed neither octanol-air partition coefficient (KOA) nor black carbon partition coefficient (KBC-A) is an appropriate surrogate for soil organic matter (SOM), subsequently, absorption by SOM has no or little role in the partitioning of HFRs.
Display omitted
•NBFR was the most abundant in soil than PBDE and DP.•Significantly high level of NBFRs in soil was due to use in wide variety of consumer items.•The source of high level of PBDEs was linked with use of technical PBDEs.•Fugacity fraction result suggested deposition and net transport from air to soil is dominant.•Soil-air partitioning study revealed neither KOA and KBC-A is appropriate surrogate for SOM.
Halogenated flame retardants in the surface soil of Nepal: air-soil exchange and soil air partitioning.
Landslide problems are abundant in the mountainous areas of Nepal due to a unique combination of adverse geological conditions, abundant rainfall and anthropogenic factors, which leads to enormous ...loss of life and property every year. To control such problems, systematic studies of landslides are necessary, including inventory mapping and risk assessment. This study applies the analytical hierarchy process method in the Tinau watershed, Nepal. A landslide susceptibility map is prepared on the basis of available digital data of topography, geology, land-use and hydrology. The landslide susceptibility map is validated through physical and statistical methods. The results reveal that the predicted susceptibility levels are found to be in good agreement with the past landslide occurrences, and, hence, the map is trustworthy for future land-use planning.
► This study applies the AHP method in the Tinau watershed, Nepal. ► Landslide susceptibility map is prepared on the basis of available data. ► The data used are topography, geology, hydrology, land use and rainfall. ► The map is validated through physical and statistical methods. ► Predicted susceptibility levels agree with the past landslide occurrences.
Nepal-Nation-state in the Wilderness takes a critical look at three important aspects of modern Nepal: viability of the Nepali State, prospects and challenges of its liberal democracy, and strategies ...for managing the emerging geopolitical trends.
The 2015 Gorkha earthquake produced displacement on the lower half of a shallow decollement that extends 100 km south, and upward from beneath the High Himalaya and Kathmandu to where it breaks the ...surface to form the trace of the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT), leaving unruptured the shallowest ∼50 km of the decollement. To address the potential of future earthquakes along this section of the HFT, we examine structural, stratigraphic, and radiocarbon relationships in exposures created by emplacement of trenches across the HFT where it has produced scarps in young alluvium at the mouths of major rivers at Tribeni and Bagmati. The Bagmati site is located south of Kathmandu and directly up dip from the Gorkha rupture, whereas the Tribeni site is located ∼200 km to the west and outside the up dip projection of the Gorkha earthquake rupture plane. The most recent rupture at Tribeni occurred 1221–1262 AD to produce a scarp of ∼7 m vertical separation. Vertical separation across the scarp at Bagmati registers ∼10 m, possibly greater, and formed between 1031–1321 AD. The temporal constraints and large displacements allow the interpretation that the two sites separated by ∼200 km each ruptured simultaneously, possibly during 1255 AD, the year of a historically reported earthquake that produced damage in Kathmandu. In light of geodetic data that show ∼20 mm/yr of crustal shortening is occurring across the Himalayan front, the sum of observations is interpreted to suggest that the HFT extending from Tribeni to Bagmati may rupture simultaneously, that the next great earthquake near Kathmandu may rupture an area significantly greater than the section of HFT up dip from the Gorkha earthquake, and that it is prudent to consider that the HFT near Kathmandu is well along in a strain accumulation cycle prior to a great thrust earthquake, most likely much greater than occurred in 2015.
•Paleoseismology along the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) of Nepal.•Past and Future Great Earthquakes in vicinity of 2015 Gorkha earthquake.•Strain accumulation cycle on HFT leading to great earthquake near Kathmandu.•Fault Displacement may record historically reported 1255 AD earthquake.
Through the prism of a Nepali remittance village, this book critically examines poverty and livelihood dynamics remade through transnational labour migration and remittances, and their ...interrelationships with land, rural labour and agriculture.
The concept of The Remittance Village emphasises rural people's transnational mobilities as a key feature of contemporary dynamics in many parts of the Global South, which are reconfiguring rural social, economic and ecological textures. Sunam challenges complacent linear narratives that assume new opportunities such as transnational migration, and remittances provide better pathways for the rural poor to come out of poverty, as well as narratives that understate the importance of land and farming for the rural poor. He demonstrates both that new opportunities are inaccessible for many poor people and that accessing these opportunities often engenders increased precarity and vulnerability. In The Remittance Village, he finds that even those accessing new opportunities are successful only when their household member(s) are simultaneously engaged in in-situ (non-)agricultural activities.
This book is a valuable resource for scholars and students from a range of interdisciplinary backgrounds, including human geography, anthropology of development, and sociology. It is also recommended reading for policy makers, international development agencies and I/NGOs working on rural development in the Global South.
Soft-sediment deformation structures have been analyzed at six sites of the Kathmandu valley. Microgranulometric study reveals that silty levels (60 to 80% silt) favor the development of ...soft-sediment deformation structures, while sandy levels (60 to 80% sand) are passively deformed. Nonetheless well sorted sand levels (more than 80% sand) generate over-fluid pressure during compaction if located beneath a silty cap, leading to fluidization and dike development. 3-D geometry of seismites indicates a very strong horizontal shearing during their development. Using a physical approach based on soil liquefaction during horizontal acceleration, we show that the fluidization zone progressively grows down-section during the shaking, but does not exactly begin at the surface. The comparison of bed-thickness and strength/depth evolution indicates three cases: i) no soft-sediment deformation occurs for thin (few centimeters) silty beds; ii) the thickness of soft-sediment deformation above sandy beds is controlled by the lithological contrast; iii) the thickness of soft-sediment deformation depends on the shaking intensity for very thick silty beds. These 3 cases are evidenced in the Kathmandu basin. We use the 30
cm-thick soft-sediment deformation level formed during the 1833 earthquake as a reference: the 1833 earthquake rupture zone extended very close to Kathmandu, inducing there MMI IX–X damages. A 90
cm-thick sediment deformation has therefore to be induced by an event greater than MMI X. From a compilation of paleo and historic seismology studies, it is found that the great (M
~
8.1) historical earthquakes are not characteristic of the greatest earthquakes of Himalaya; hence earthquakes greater than M
~
8.6 occurred. Kathmandu is located above one of the asperities that laterally limits the extent of mega-earthquake ruptures and two successive catastrophic events already affected Kathmandu, in 1255 located to the west of this asperity and in ~
1100 to the east.
► Soft-sediment deformation is controlled by the fluidization of silty levels. ► Shearing between planes parallel to the surface causes soft-sediment deformation. ► Pre-historic seismites are three times thicker than seismites linked to MMI X historic events. ► Kathmandu is at the transition between two segments of Himalaya. ► Two successive catastrophic earthquakes occurred during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Nepal is a sensitive earthquake zone. On April 25, 2015, there was an Earthquake of 7.8 Mw. After that, more than 30 aftershocks of above 5 Mw occurred. One of the aftershocks was of 7.3 Mw which ...occurred on May 12. In this paper, the damages in the tunnel of the Melamchi water supply project due to this earthquake were assessed. Cracks were observed on the inside surface, wall, and crown of the tunnel. Distribution and characteristics of these seismic damages were investigated and summarised to assess potential influencing factors. The damages are categorized into the following patterns: lining cracks and spalling. Lining cracks are further divided into longitudinal cracks, transverse cracks, ring cracks, and inclined cracks. Influencing factors are discussed with respect to Earthquake parameters mainly being magnitude, depth and distance to epicenter. This paper presents the pattern of seismic damages occurred for different overburden depths and different rock types. Here, the analysis is done by observation and categorization of damages for different aspects of considered factors and there are some unusual results in damages for varying overburden depths. There were few unusual results as in the damage distribution for overburden depth and also for different rock types. The reason may be the occurrence of many considerable aftershocks and epicenter being very near, so the damages may have been accumulated after each shock. Also the distribution of rock types have influenced the damages. So one influencing factors may have its effects on the results while considering the other factor.
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