Geotectonic and seisnlic risk implications of ground level changes in the Dehradun region during the 1905-28 period

Abstract

We interpret here the ground elevation changes along the Saharanpur - Dehradun - Mussoorie line as brought out through the levelling surveys of 1905-07 and 1926-28. These data can be simulated with a model of slips, varying in amount between 3 ± 3 and 16 ± 8 cm, on the same subsurface detachment on which the great Kangra earthquake of 1905 may have occurred as argued elsewhere in the literature. Since ground elevation changes occurred in the Dehradun region during the Kangra earthquake also, we suggest that slips related to plate tectonics on the detachment lead to ground elevation changes partly aseismically during periods between great earthquakes and partly coseismically at the times of such earthquakes. The annual rates of slips obtainable from the above numerical results being much less than the estimated rate of 18 ± 7 mm/year for plate convergence accommodated at the Himalaya, we conclude that earthquake generating strains accumulated in the Dehradun region during the 21 years between the two levelling surveys.