Tectonic fault line in Ladakh not inactive, as thought earlier: Study

Geologist Koushik Sen however, says that there is a minimal chance of a major earthquake

A tectonic fault line that runs through Ladakh was earlier thought to be inactive but a recent survey conducted by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun found that the fault line that is named the Indus Suture Zone is, in fact, active and moving northwards.

“While the frontal and central parts of the Himalayas — the Shivaliks, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Sikkim — are still known to be active and moving, the current understanding about the Ladakh region is that it was locked. Our survey has found that this is actually not the case and that the plate is still tectonically active. The fault line runs all along the Indus river, from China through India and Pakistan,’’ co-author of the study, Koushik Sen told The Indian Express.

A suture zone is an area where a continuous belt of major deformities, tectonic plates, metamorphic histories, and distinct terranes meet.

The study was conducted in the Union Territory of Ladakh, 213 km north of Leh in which sedimentary beds in the area were tilted, rivers that had uplifted terraces, river beds showed brittle deformation. Such observations were then dated in the institute's lab and it was found that the Indus Suture Zone has been active for the past 78,000-58,000 years.

However, as what seems like a relief, Sen told the publication that the threat of a strong earthquake is low. “The possibility of a high magnitude earthquake here is almost non-existent because we have not picked up any intense seismic signature in the region,” he told the website.

The geologist cautioned that an active fault line doesn't only expose the area to earthquakes but also to landslides and erosion.

“What makes the Ladakh region vulnerable is that unlike other areas in the Himalayas and the rest of the country, there is very little vegetation here and very few trees that can root the soil down. So, in the case of a flash flood or a cloud burst, this can have a widespread impact,” he said.