Publications related to the GRACE Missions (no abstracts)

• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •

Annual variations in Nepalese seismicity: b-values and seismicity rates

Colledge, Martin, Chanard, Kristel, Duverger, Clara, Schubnel, Alexandre, Adhikari, Lok Bijaya, and Bollinger, Laurent, 2025. Annual variations in Nepalese seismicity: b-values and seismicity rates. Geophysical Journal International, .

Downloads

• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System  • by the DOI System  •

@ARTICLE{2025GeoJI.tmp..271C,
       author = {{Colledge}, Martin and {Chanard}, Kristel and {Duverger}, Clara and {Schubnel}, Alexandre and {Adhikari}, Lok Bijaya and {Bollinger}, Laurent},
        title = "{Annual variations in Nepalese seismicity: b-values and seismicity rates}",
      journal = {Geophysical Journal International},
         year = 2025,
        month = jul,
     abstract = "{Seasonal variations in Nepalese seismicity have been reported with
        varying degrees of confidence. We re-investigate these claims by
        analysing 20 years of Nepalese seismicity before the 2015 Gorkha
        earthquake, as detected by the Nepalese national network, and
        focusing on earthquakes located along the eastern and central
        sections of the Nepalese Main Himalayan Thrust. Using several
        declustering techniques, we find no statistically robust
        evidence of seasonal seismicity in the studied record,
        regardless of magnitude threshold above completeness. This
        suggests that previously reported seasonality may be restricted
        to the western section of the Nepalese orogeny, may be an
        artefact, or may indicate that nucleation times of earthquakes
        are longer than the year. We also investigate potential annual
        variations in the Gutenberg-Richter b-value, given its recent
        observed modulation by transient stressing. Additionally, we use
        large-scale mass redistribution estimated from the monthly
        gravity field retrieved from the Gravity Recovery And Climate
        Experiment and Follow-On (GRACE/-FO) missions, to resolve stress
        variations at depth induced by transient surface loads. We find
        that the mean annual b-value peaks when seasonal Coulomb stress
        rates reach their minimum value at the height of the summer
        rainy season. When considering the combined effect of tectonic
        and seasonal loading, this corresponds to a recurring period of
        stress reversal, when Coulomb stress momentarily decreases. This
        suggests that periodic clamping of the Main Himalayan Thrust
        reduces the likelihood of earthquakes growing to larger
        magnitudes in accordance with hierarchical rupture models. The
        susceptibility of b-value to stress variations of roughly 0.1
        points.kPa$^{-1}$ is consistent with recent estimates of b-value
        sensitivity to transient loading, although it remains high when
        compared to the stress-dependency associated with both static
        differential stress, and with long-term evolution during the
        seismic cycle. This discrepancy points to the large impact of
        stress transients on the dynamics of seismic rupture.}",
          doi = {10.1093/gji/ggaf259},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025GeoJI.tmp..271C},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

Generated by bib2html_grace.pl (written by Patrick Riley modified for this page by Volker Klemann) on Thu Aug 14, 2025 17:55:12

---

Thu Aug 14, F. Flechtner