Indian Journal of Geology Vol. 67, No. 1, p. 34-48, 1995 NEOTECTONISM AND SEISMIC HAZARDS IN INDIA D. R. Nanpy Geological Survey of India, Caleutia ABSTRACT Over the last 200 years, India has witnessed five great earthquakes (Mag > 8) and several major earthquakes (Mag > 6) that wrecked hovoc among the population of India, and yet after almost a century of seismic studies in India, it has not been possible to delineate the causative, i.e, seismogenic, faults with any degree of precision, This is largely due to the fact that no serious attempt has been made till date to reconstruct the neotectonic history of the known faults, even in those neotectonic fault zones where there are visible correlations with earthquakes. In this paper, zones having records of neotectonie activity have been discussed from available information, which have then been correlated with the known earthquake events. Emphasis has been laid on the absolute necessity of a sequenced programme, beginning with identification and detailed study of neotectonic faults through geological, geophysical and palaeose- ismic analyses, and finally working out the past seismic history. ‘These identified faults may be monitored to evaluate their present day seismic character. ‘This will help in preparation of proper earthquake hazard zonation/mierozonation map towards hazard mitigation. Ker-words : Seismicity, neotectonism, seismic hazards in India. INTRODUCTION The expanding ocean floors of the his property. It is therefore essential to evaluate their causative factors before earth, the subduction/collision zones in consuming plate boundaries, the constant movement of the plates, and the continual lithosphere - asthenosphere interactions at depth have been imparting characteristic interplate and intraplate stress and pressure- temperature fields to various sectors of the earth's crust through very complex dynamic processes, Amongst many manifestations of such processes, the release of stress and thermal energy through earthquakes and volcanism result in hazards to man and embarking on longterm hazard manage- ment strategies. This paper aims at empha- sizing the necessity of recognising the zones of Neogene-Quaternary tectonism in rela- tion to seismic hazard assessment prog- rammes in Indi The Indian subcontinent along with the Himalayan and Arakan Yoma - Andaman ares offers a veritable ground for studying the phenomena of contemporary tectonism and earthquake events (Fig.1) of both inter — and intraplate types. The results ofFig. 1. detailed study of the nature of past earth- quakes for the whole country will give 8 clearer understanding of the earth proce- ses giving rise to earthquakes and, in turn, of the seismic hazard potential of the ifferent sectors of the country in a general way. Demarcation of such sectors may help in drawing special attention to the high risk zones of the country for detailed study. with earthquake epicentres. Against the backdrop of death and damages caused by major Indian earth- quakes (Table 1), an attempt has been made to identify the active fault zones and corre- late them with available earthquake data and seismic history. NE OTECTONISM Himalaya, Indo-Burman range and NE India ‘The Himalayan mountain range along 3536 D. R. NANDY Table 1 ‘Major Indian earthquakes : death and damages* ‘Area fo (69 kms SI. Eventwith —Bpicentral_ Felt Casualty Damages No, magnitude tract (melzo- (Mb). _seismal zone) 1 2 3 4 5 6 1, 1897,Great 384,000 4,420,000 Morethan 1500 died Widespread damage in the Assom ‘and thousands were then’ Assam and Bengal. Earthquake injured, Shillong town was razed to (ab 3.7) the ground ; entire township had to be rebuilt. The stan- dard for MM scale peak (Xt) intensity was defioed fon the basis of damages in Shiliong towo, 2 1905, 5.120 4,159,000 Nearly 20,000 lives Townships and villages fo Kangra were lost. the meizoselmal zone were (Mb 8.6) ald to rains. 3. 198, 332 122,000 Very few, sioce the ‘Stimangal event occurred a- (Mb 7.6) ting early afternoon (15.30 hrs) when ‘most people were ‘out on work. 4. 1930, ‘4 dlatricts of the 924,320 Casualties werefew Brick = masonry buildings Dhubri then Assam & since houses in the collapsed or badly cracked, (M71) Bengal. meizoseismal zone Restoration cost in Laie were of light & fex!- nirbat district alone ws operstructure Rs. 279,400/~. and the climate belog ‘warm, most people , were sleeping outside. 5. 1934, ‘Tdistlcts 4,920,000 7253 deaths in India; Within minutes, Monghyr Bihae {in Bitar and 13400 deaths in Nepal. and Bhatgson townships (4b 8.4) Taree area io Intensity reached were in complete ruins. Nepal. peak 2 minutes afier commencement, allowing time to ras ‘utide ; thus death toll was less com- pared to damege.NEOTECTONISM AND SEISMIC HAZARDS IN INDIA 3” % 10. 1980, Assam (Mb 8.7) 1956, Anis (Gujarat) (Mb 7.0) 1967, Koyna (Mb 8 5) Kinnaur (Mb 6.8) 1988, Bibar- Nepal (Mb 64) 99,880 2,892,000 1,920 Tremor felt over large tern India. Few tens of 490,000 sq km in & around Koy- agar. 10,000 202,000 1,200 160,000 Fy 68,000 10 Morethan 20,000 s 1526 deaths with about 500 deaths due to subsequent food. 115 lives were lost and 414 were inju- red. More than 200 peo- ple died and a few thousands were injured. {60 people died and ‘afew hundred were injared. ‘More than 300 people died in people died in Nepal. 168 people were killed. ‘About 7500 people died and more than 14000 people injured. Widespread collapse of buil- dings in Upper Assam. 40% 0 50% wildlite perished in ‘hilly tracts. Assam Oil Co., Dighoi estimated loss at Res. 11,0000 & PWD road) bridge damages estimated at Rs. $0,00000, 126 acres of tea garden covered under thick siltation, Total collapse of house in twelve (12) villages within ‘meizoselsmal zone, Temporary constructions ia ‘Koynanagar area collapsed. About 2000 houses were destroyed. ‘About 50,000 houses were affected, of which several ‘thousands had collapsed, 20,184 bouses were totally damaged; 74,714 houses ‘were partially damaged. Widespread collapse of adobe type and random ‘rubble masonry construction in the epiceatral tract. More than 35,000 hovses suffered various degrees of damage. from various published literatures,38 D. R. NANDY with its foothill zone has been tectoni= cally active since the time of collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian landmass starting from the Palacocene-Eocene time. Likewise, the Arakan Yoma Andaman belt and the region of Northeastern India lying near the linkage (Nandy, 1976) of these two. mobile belts are also zones of tectonic activity. As the processes of collision/sub- duction along these belts are still continuing today, the Neogene-Recent tectonic activit (acotectonics) is relevant to the subject dealt in here. Besides the neotectonic activity along ‘eertain sectors of the Main Central Thrust, Main Boundary Thrust and Foothill Frontal Thrust, evidence of neotectonism in the main Himalayan domain is discernible along the Krol, Shali, Shrinagar, Manora, Markanda, Sarpduli-Dhikhala and Satlit Soan thrusts (Narula et a/., 1989). There are «many transverse faults across the Hima- Jayan trend which have been active during the Quaternary Period. To name a few, they are Jamuna tear, Gange tear, Mith wali fault, Sile tear, Simalghat and Tundi tear faults etc. in the western Himalaya, and the Tipi Thrust in the northeast Hima- layas. Regional seismotectonic analysis of the eastern and northeastern Himalayas ‘and of Northeastern India reveals that a number of transverse tectonic features have sculptured the configuration of the Tertiary basins in front of the Himalayas. Many of these transverse structures indicate dominantly strike slip displacements offse- ing Upper Siwalik Boulder bed, and what is even more significant, most of them are active today (Das Gupta et al., 1987; ‘Nandy and Das Gupta, 1991). Active subduction is continuing along the Arakan Yoma - Chin Hills - Andaman are with attendant buckling, thrusting and cross faulting in the fore-arc wedge, for- ming fold belts of Upper Assam, Naga- land, Manipur and Mizoram within the Indian territory (Nandy, 1986 ; Mukhopa- dhyay and Das Gupta, 1988 ; Das Gupta, 1992). ‘The Meghalaya Plateau and Mikir Hills massif along with their surrounding sedimentary basins, lying between the two mobile belts, are under constant stress. At present, the stress is periodically released through adjustment along many strike-slip faults, viz., Kopili, Jamuna, Sylhet, Dudhe- nai faults etc. (Das Gupta and Nandy, 1982 ; Nandy and Das Gupta, op. cit.). Shield Area Neotectonic activity has been reported from many parts of the Indian Shield (Dhoundial, 1987), notably from the coastal tracts and Son-Narmada-Tapti zone, At least two major post-Neogene faults trending NE-SW and running parallel to the Aravalli range in Rajasthan, separating the western peidmont plains, ridge and valley province and the higher plateau, indicate a clear history of Quaternary move- ments (Sen and Sen, 1983). From the study of various structural features, geomorpho- Jogical elements and stratigraphic evidences} Das Sarma (1986) has postulated many NE, N-S and NNW trending neotectonic faults| in Rajasthan. The extensive NNE-SSW trending Sardasherh fault has been active during the Quaternary period (Ahmed and Ahmed, 1980). In Rajasthan sector, a NNE-SSW trending fault running south of} Silaria and north of Rohina displaysNEOTECTONISM AND SEISMIC HAZARDS IN INDIA 39. evidences of neotectonism for about 30 km in Nagaur district ; a parallel fault, about ‘Skm south of this fault, runs south of Doni and Ubasi. There are many NW-SE and NE-SW trending Quaternary faults in Ajitgarh-Shahpura-Bairath tract of Jaipur district. ‘The important ones are (a) Bhanga Ki Dhani-Ajmeri fault trending ENE-WSW, (b) Chhitoli-Panchodala-Karoli fault tren- ding NE-SW to NNE-SSW and (c) Bhil- wari -Lobra -Kumbhawas fault trending NE-SW. There are many active faults in the Kutch and Saurashtra areas of Gujarat. ‘Most important of these are the NNW-SSE trending faults bounding Cambay graben, Kutch rift trending E-W and Surat Margi- nal fault trending ENE-WSW. Besides, there are Kutch Mainland fault, Katrol Hill fault, Vigodi fault, Banni fault, Goradongar and Kaladongar faults, forming a veritable network in western Gujarat. The region traversed by these faults display a first order topography implying that there has been very recent movements along these faults (Biswas and Despande, 1983). There are anumber of NE-SW trending active faults in between Broach and Surat. In this area, courses of river Narmada, Tapti, Purna and Kim are fault-controlled (Mukherjee, 1980). One of the most conspicuous crustal discontinuity zones in Central Indian Shield region is marked by courses of Narmada, Son and Tapti rivers; towards east, the zone merges with the western part of Damodar valley. This zone is characteri- zed by overwhelming dominance of E-W to ENE-WSW trending linears, of which the collinear tracts of Son and Narmada valleys are most. prominent. As such, the zone is popularly referred to as Son-Narmada ineament zone, and since it traverses virtually the entire width of peninsular shield it has drawn a lot of attention. According to some workers (Ravishanker, 1993) this represents a continental rift system in terms of its marked linearity, neotectonic activity, heat flow character and moderate seismicity. Within this zone there are nearly E-W trending (horst/ graben) blocks bound-by parallel/subpara- Mel faults; notable among them are the Son-Narmada north: fault, Son-Narmada south fault, Barwani-Sukta fault, Govilgarh fault, Satpura south fault and Onkareshwar fault. In many places these E-W blocks ate traversed by transverse trends, notable among them being the Godavari trend and the Burhanpur (21-17" : 76.16") Tear which has caused about 30 km displacement in the Satpura trend (Ravishankar, 1991). In addition to such large scale horizontal shifts, large vertical movements of upto 1 km are also indicated, ©. g., by the tecto- nic inliers of Deccan Trap (Anon, 1991). It is no mere coincidence that the low ‘magnitude swarm seismicity, currently obser- ved around parts of Khandwa di in 'M.P., lies close to the junction of Godavari trend, Burhanpur Tear and the Son - Nar- mada zone. At its western extremity, the Son-Narmada zone is traversed by the coast-paralle! faults of the Cambay Graben, and this intersection zone witnessed a damaging event in 1970. In the western coast area of Mahara- shtra, the most important active fault is the N-S trending Panvel flexure (fault) which, at its: northern extremity, joins the western marginal fault of the Cambay Graben (Raju40 DR. NANDY and Srinivasan, 1983). Among the trans- verse faults which have witnessed neotec- tonic activity are, the ENE-WSW trending fault delimiting the southern boundary of Bombay High and the Ratnagiri fault, showing sinistral displacement, which tra- verses the onshore areas passing south of Bombay (Raju and Srinivasan, op. cit.) The west coast fault zone running almost NS in the Koyna area is also a well-known active fault zone. The curviinear fault Dounding the western margin of the “Deccan Rise”, off Bombay coast, seems to-have been reactivated during Neogene period. The entire area from coast towards shelf margin is segmented by basement controlled NW-SE to N-S faults, giving rise to many horst and graben structures (Mitra et af., 1983), Another basin margin fault running sub-parallel to the coast from Quilon to Karwar delimits the early Tertiary and older sediments west of it. Besides, there are several NW-SE faults cutting accross the shore line and extending deep into the landmass; many of these have a history of contemporary movements. Some interesting indications of subsidence were found in the excavation of the Prince’s Dock in the east side of Bombay island in 1878, During the excavation, in connection with the extension of Alexandra Dock in 1910, vertical tree trunks were found as much as 13 m below the level now reached by the highest tide, and this must, therefore, be regarded as the minimum amount of subsidence undergone by the old land surface (La Touche, 1919). On the western side of the Bombay island there are equally compelling signs of recent tectonism: old beach material comprising shelly gravel, now partly consolidated into littoral con- crete, are found raised 3 m above the high water mark. In the southernmost shield area the E-W trending Palar, Moyar-Bhavani-Athur and Palghat-Cauvery lineaments are promi- nent discontinuties and regarded by some as ancient suture zones (Gopalkrishnan etal., 1990), Since sutures are intensely dissected by planes of deformation origin, they remain susceptible to accumulation of stress during contemporary tectonics. Same is the case with the NW-SE trending Achan- koil lincament in Tamil Nadu and NNW-SSE Periyar, NNE-SSW Allippy- Idukki lineaments and the NE-SW trending Suruliar shear zone in Kerala. ‘The eastern coastal tract and the adjoi- ning area are characterised by many faults/ fractures displaying evidences of neotecto- nic activity. The area from Penar delta to Visakapattam including the delta of Cau- very and Krishna rivers, is characterised by many NE-SW trending fault-bound base- ment ridges and depressions, traversed by prominent transverse features like the Ongole, Avanigade, Chintalpudi and Pithampuram cross-trends (Kumar, 1983). These NE and NW trending discontinuities may be vulnerable to reactivation, with progressive build-up of intraplate stress. ‘The high heat flow and moderate seismicity along the Godavari and Mahanadi grabens are indicative of contemporary. tectonic rejuvenation. While in some parts of the east coast there is evidence of post-Tertiary uplift, in others there are signs of depre- ssion, The great delta of the Gunges has undergone, and is still undergoing, subsi- dence, about 160 km southwest of Calcutta ;NEOTECTONISM AND: SEISMIC HAZARDS IN INDIA 4a onthe other. hand, evidences point to still active uplifting for nearly 300 km along the Orissa coast, as indicated by the continual seaward migration of coast line (Blanford, 1862; Bruce Foote, 1883). The NW-SE, trending Mahanadi graben indicates ,con- temporary tectonism and recent seismicity. In the, Madras coast, raised coral. reefs, ; sediments with recent shells, low level laterite have been recorded indicating active block. upliftment along the coast (Bruce Foote, 1883). ‘In Bengal Basin, the most prominent faults having a history of neotectonic acti- vity are (a) the curvilinear western basin marginal fault of the sub-surface Gondwar basin ad (b) the fault passing along the western margin of the Eocene hinge zone. Three N-S faults have branched off from the Gondwana basin marginal fault further to the north. Four basement faults cutting actoss the Neogene sediments have been delineated in the Bengal Basin through two east-west DSS profiles. A NNE-SSW neo- teétonic normal fault has been reported from just west of the Swatch of No Ground in the Bay of Bengal (Nandy, 1994). The seismic status of the Himalayan belt including the foothills and the Naga- Arakan Yoma - Andaman belt as well as the Northeastern India is well known. Though there are 4 known great earthquake events having magnitude greater than 8 in this region, for the purpose of seismic hazard assessment no definite causative fault has 40 far been identified, movement along which could be related to these devastating earthquakes. Nor has’ it been possible to delineate the seismogenic faults, with any degree of certainty for the recent dev: ting intraplate earthquakes of peninsular India. Middlemiss (1910) recorded true rock fissures near Largi, showing perfectly fresh surface, along the line of faulting after the 1905 Kangra earthquake. The great Assam earthquake of 1897 was thought to ha been caused due to thrusting, but its effects were intensified by new faults of normal character ; one such N-S trending normal fault, Chedrang fault, was traced for 20 km and its maximum throw was estimated at 10m (Oldham, 1899). There were many ground fissures during 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake, but the causative fault was not traceable. The best that can be said about the Srimangal earthquake of &th July, 1918 (Mb 7.6) is that it was supposed to have originated due to subsidence along. the southern side of a normal fault trending ENE WSW through Balisera valley in Sylhet, Bangladesh (Stuart, 1920). The severe earthquake of June, 1819 (Oldham, 1898) in Rann of Kutch caused movement along @ fault, of considerable size which built up mounds of earth and sand exten- ding for 100km, which had become known asthe Allah Bund. Although the seis city in the Himalayan belt and NE India is very intense, the distribution of their epicentres do not show any easily recogni sable pattern, Asa result it is very difficult to correlate an earthquake event with a known fault. According to various workers, various sectors in MCT, MBT and FFT fare believed to have generated damaging earthquakes, but such qualitative identifi-