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Ms. Basanta Raj Adhikari
Deputy Director, Center for Disaster Studies, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

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0 Climate Change
0 Earthquake
0 Flood
0 landslides
0 Disaster risk management

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Surface dynamics in the himalayas

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Nlm article
Published: 01 July 2021 in Weather, Climate, and Society
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Lightning is one of the most devastating hazards in Nepal because of a large amount of atmospheric water vapor coming from the Indian Ocean and a large orographic lifting of this moist air. In 2019, a total of 2884 people were affected, with loss of USD 110,982, and the fatality number was the highest (94) in reported lightning events since 1971. The long-term analysis of this hazard is very scanty in Nepal. Therefore, this study analyzes lightning fatality events, fatality rates, and economic loss from 1971 to 2019 collected from the DesInventar dataset and the Disaster Risk Reduction portal of the government of Nepal using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and geographic information system (ArcGIS) tools. The analysis shows that the overall countrywide lightning fatality rate of the entire period is 1.77 per million per year. District lightning fatality rates range from 0.10 to 4.83 per million people per year, and the Bhaktapur district has the highest fatality density (0.067). Furthermore, there were a total of 2501 lightning fatality events in which 1927 people lost their lives and 20 569 people were affected. The increase in lightning fatality events in recent years is due to internet penetration and other measures of information gathering that result in lightning fatality reports reaching agencies collecting information. The high and low concentrations of loss and damage are mainly due to geographic distribution, population density, and economic activities. This study recommends the establishment of lightning early warning systems in the Nepal Himalayas to save life and property.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari. Lightning Fatalities and Injuries in Nepal. Weather, Climate, and Society 2021, 13, 449 -458.

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari. Lightning Fatalities and Injuries in Nepal. Weather, Climate, and Society. 2021; 13 (3):449-458.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari. 2021. "Lightning Fatalities and Injuries in Nepal." Weather, Climate, and Society 13, no. 3: 449-458.

Chapter
Published: 15 June 2021 in Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience
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The occurrence of landslides in the Nepal Himalaya is a common phenomenon due to active seismotectonics coupled with the strong monsoon, fragile landscape, and inadequate agricultural practices. This research has analyzed the trends of landslide events, total fatalities, and economic losses from 1971 to 2016 and discussed the landslide early warning system initiatives in Nepal. Spatiotemporal variation of landslide events shows an increasing trend with nonlinear relationships between events and deaths. The highest number of events and fatalities is concentrated in central Nepal due to population growth, rural-urban migration, and haphazard road construction. Moreover, the number of deaths and economic loss is higher in the hills compared to the mountain and Terai. Only few early warning system initiatives were applied either in project or community basis in Nepal. Most of those initiatives vanished after the project completion. Nepal government should start to build a nationwide dynamic landslide inventory database system connected with weather stations for the monitoring and forecasting of the landslide.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Bingwei Tian. Spatiotemporal Distribution of in. Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience 2021, 453 -471.

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Bingwei Tian. Spatiotemporal Distribution of in. Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience. 2021; ():453-471.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Bingwei Tian. 2021. "Spatiotemporal Distribution of in." Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience , no. : 453-471.

Preprint content
Published: 04 March 2021
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Mass movements play an important role in landscape evolution of high mountain areas such as the Himalayas. Yet, establishing numerical age control and reconstructing transport dynamics of past events is challenging. To fill this research gap, we investigated the potential of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating and tracing methods. OSL dating analyses of Himalayan sediments is extremely challenging due to two main reasons: i) the OSL sensitivity of quartz, typically the mineral of choice for dating sediments younger than 100 ka, is poor, and ii) highly turbid conditions during mass movement transport hamper sufficient OSL signal resetting prior to deposition which eventually results in age overestimation. In this study, we aim to bring OSL dating to the test in an extremely challenging environment. First, we assess the applicability of single-grain feldspar dating of mass movement deposits in the Pokhara valley, Nepal. Second, we exploit the poor bleaching mechanisms to get insight into the sediment dynamics of this paleo-mass movement through bleaching proxies. The Pokhara valley is a unique setting for our case-study, considering the availability of an extensive independent radiocarbon dataset (Schwanghart et al., 2016) as a geochronological benchmark.

Single-grain infrared stimulated luminescence signals were measured at 50°C (IRSL50) and post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence signals at 150°C (pIRIR-150). As expected, results show that the IRSL50 signal is better bleached than the pIRIR150 signal. A bootstrapped Minimum Age Model (bMAM) is applied to retrieve the youngest subpopulation to estimate the palaeodose. However, burial ages calculated based on this palaeodose overestimate the radiocarbon ages by an average factor of ~8 (IRSL50) and ~35 (pIRIR150). This shows that dating of the Pokhara Formation with our single-grain approach was not successful. Large inheritances in combination with the scatter in the single-grain dose distributions show that the sediments have been transported prior to deposition under extreme limited light exposure which corresponds well with the highly turbid nature of the sediment laden flood and debris flows that emplaced the Pokhara Formation.

To investigate the sediment transport dynamics in more detail we studied three bleaching proxies: the percentage of grains in saturation (2D0 criteria), percentage of well-bleached grains (2σ range of bMAM-De) and the overdispersion (OD). Neither of the three bleaching proxies indicate a spatial relationship with run-out distances of the mass movement deposits. We interpret this as virtual absence of bleaching during transport, which reflects the catastrophic nature of the event. While single-grain feldspar dating did not provide reliable burial ages of the Pokhara mass movement deposits, our approach has great potential to provide insight in sediment transport dynamics of high-impact low-frequency mass movement events in mountainous region.

References

Schwanghart, W., Bernhardt, A., Stolle, A., Hoelzmann, P., Adhikari, B. R., Andermann, C., ... & Korup, O. (2016). Repeated catastrophic valley infill following medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya. Science, 351(6269), 147-150.

ACS Style

Anna-Maartje de Boer; Wolfgang Schwanghart; Jürgen Mey; Jakob Wallinga; Basanta Raj Adhikari; Tony Reimann. Insight into the sediment dynamics of a high-impact low-frequency mass movement event using single-grain feldspar luminescence in the Pokhara valley, Nepal. 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Anna-Maartje de Boer, Wolfgang Schwanghart, Jürgen Mey, Jakob Wallinga, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Tony Reimann. Insight into the sediment dynamics of a high-impact low-frequency mass movement event using single-grain feldspar luminescence in the Pokhara valley, Nepal. . 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anna-Maartje de Boer; Wolfgang Schwanghart; Jürgen Mey; Jakob Wallinga; Basanta Raj Adhikari; Tony Reimann. 2021. "Insight into the sediment dynamics of a high-impact low-frequency mass movement event using single-grain feldspar luminescence in the Pokhara valley, Nepal." , no. : 1.

Preprint content
Published: 23 March 2020
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Road construction in the Trans-Himalaya is always challenging task because of having fragile and rugged topography with the strong influence of monsoon. Three different road corridors namely Kaligandaki (Pokhara-Jomsoom-Zhongba), Trishuali (Kathamndu-Trishuli-Gyirong) and Bhotekoshi rivers (Kathmandu-Tatopani-Nyalam) cross the Himalaya with different geological discontinuities i.e. South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS), Main Central Thrust (MCT). The Himalayan range is acting a topographic barrier resulting different climate in the southern and northern part. These three roads are very strategic for the connectivity between Trans-Himalaya and midland. People have been living in these valleys for a long time. After the road construction, people have started to build houses along this road. However, people have are often forgetting the influence of these large scale mass movement that occurred in the past. Therefore, an attempt has been done to analyze these past events and their impacts. Preparation of engineering geological map, landslide inventories and investigation of large scale past mass movement have been done in detailed field investigations in 2018 and 2019 supported by remote sensing. Slope stability analysis has been done in different critical sections for the landslide hazard assessment. It is clearly seen that the road passes some of these large scale paleo-landslides and responsible for toe cutting. The road sections are critical in all three roads but more vulnerable in the southern slope of the Himalaya. The road between Beni to Larjung of the Kaligandaki has critical slope and susceptible for landslide occurrences. Therefore, proper mitigation measures have to be implemented for the stabilization of these mountain slope.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Bingwei Tian; Feiyu Chen; Xiaoyun Gou; Suraj Gautam; Samir Ghimire; Suman Chapagain; Akash Acharya. Engineering geological investigation for landslide hazard zonation in the Sino-Nepal Road corridors. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Bingwei Tian, Feiyu Chen, Xiaoyun Gou, Suraj Gautam, Samir Ghimire, Suman Chapagain, Akash Acharya. Engineering geological investigation for landslide hazard zonation in the Sino-Nepal Road corridors. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Bingwei Tian; Feiyu Chen; Xiaoyun Gou; Suraj Gautam; Samir Ghimire; Suman Chapagain; Akash Acharya. 2020. "Engineering geological investigation for landslide hazard zonation in the Sino-Nepal Road corridors." , no. : 1.

Chapter
Published: 22 February 2020 in Society of Earth Scientists Series
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The Himalayan Range is generally classified into a number of broad longitudinal tectonic belts. Despite a long history of investigation, some fundamental issues of their stratigraphy and structure are still unresolved. Especially, there has been considerable controversy over delineating the Greater Himalayan and Lesser Himalayan belts of Nepal. The Greater Himalayan thrust sheet represents the hanging wall of the Main Central Thrust. In Nepal, the thrust sheet forms two large open folds: the Great Midland Antiform in the inner zone and the Great Mahabharat Synform in the outer part. The Main Himalayan Thrust and Main Central Thrust constitute respectively the floor and roof of a mega duplex where some detached Lesser Himalayan horses are exposed in various tectonic windows. The Main Himalayan Thrust plays a role of sole thrust in the imbricate stack developed within the foreland fold-and-thrust belt. The key structural and stratigraphic aspects of thrust sheets, tectonic windows, klippen, and intermontane basins are discussed together with the neotectonic activity in the Nepal Himalaya.

ACS Style

Megh Raj Dhital; Basanta Raj Adhikari. Thrust Sheets, Tectonic Windows, and Intermontane Basins in the Nepal Himalaya. Society of Earth Scientists Series 2020, 233 -254.

AMA Style

Megh Raj Dhital, Basanta Raj Adhikari. Thrust Sheets, Tectonic Windows, and Intermontane Basins in the Nepal Himalaya. Society of Earth Scientists Series. 2020; ():233-254.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Megh Raj Dhital; Basanta Raj Adhikari. 2020. "Thrust Sheets, Tectonic Windows, and Intermontane Basins in the Nepal Himalaya." Society of Earth Scientists Series , no. : 233-254.

Journal article
Published: 16 January 2020 in Remote Sensing
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Debris flow susceptibility mapping is considered to be useful for hazard prevention and mitigation. As a frequent debris flow area, many hazardous events have occurred annually and caused a lot of damage in the Sichuan Province, China. Therefore, this study attempted to evaluate and compare the performance of four state-of-the-art machine-learning methods, namely Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT), for debris flow susceptibility mapping in this region. Four models were constructed based on the debris flow inventory and a range of causal factors. A variety of datasets was obtained through the combined application of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). The mean altitude, altitude difference, aridity index, and groove gradient played the most important role in the assessment. The performance of these modes was evaluated using predictive accuracy (ACC) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The results of this study showed that all four models were capable of producing accurate and robust debris flow susceptibility maps (ACC and AUC values were well above 0.75 and 0.80 separately). With an excellent spatial prediction capability and strong robustness, the BRT model (ACC = 0.781, AUC = 0.852) outperformed other models and was the ideal choice. Our results also exhibited the importance of selecting suitable mapping units and optimal predictors. Furthermore, the debris flow susceptibility maps of the Sichuan Province were produced, which can provide helpful data for assessing and mitigating debris flow hazards.

ACS Style

Ke Xiong; Basanta Raj Adhikari; Constantine A. Stamatopoulos; Yu Zhan; Shaolin Wu; Zhongtao Dong; Baofeng Di. Comparison of Different Machine Learning Methods for Debris Flow Susceptibility Mapping: A Case Study in the Sichuan Province, China. Remote Sensing 2020, 12, 295 .

AMA Style

Ke Xiong, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Constantine A. Stamatopoulos, Yu Zhan, Shaolin Wu, Zhongtao Dong, Baofeng Di. Comparison of Different Machine Learning Methods for Debris Flow Susceptibility Mapping: A Case Study in the Sichuan Province, China. Remote Sensing. 2020; 12 (2):295.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ke Xiong; Basanta Raj Adhikari; Constantine A. Stamatopoulos; Yu Zhan; Shaolin Wu; Zhongtao Dong; Baofeng Di. 2020. "Comparison of Different Machine Learning Methods for Debris Flow Susceptibility Mapping: A Case Study in the Sichuan Province, China." Remote Sensing 12, no. 2: 295.

Article
Published: 12 December 2019 in Journal of Mountain Science
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In the central Nepal Himalaya, landslides form the major natural hazards annually resulting in many casualties and damage. Structural as well as non-structural measures are in place to minimize the risk of landslide hazard. To reduce the landslide risk, a Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) as a non-structural measure has been piloted at Sundrawati village (Kalinchowk rural municipality, Dolakha district) to identify its effectiveness. Intensive discussions with stakeholders, aided by landslide susceptibility map, resulted in a better understanding of surface dynamics and the relationship between rainfall and surface movement. This led to the development of a LEWS comprised of extensometers, soil moisture sensors, rain gauge stations, and solar panels as an energy source that blows siren receiving signals via a micro-controller and interfacing circuit. The data generated through the system is transmitted via a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network to responsible organizations in real-time to circulate the warning to local residents. This LEWS is user-friendly and can be easily operated by a community. The successful pilot early warning system has saved 495 people from 117 households in August 2018. However, landslide monitoring and dissemination of warning information remains a complex process where technical and communications skill should work closely together.

ACS Style

Prakash Singh Thapa; Basanta Raj Adhikari. Development of community-based landslide early warning system in the earthquake-affected areas of Nepal Himalaya. Journal of Mountain Science 2019, 16, 2701 -2713.

AMA Style

Prakash Singh Thapa, Basanta Raj Adhikari. Development of community-based landslide early warning system in the earthquake-affected areas of Nepal Himalaya. Journal of Mountain Science. 2019; 16 (12):2701-2713.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Prakash Singh Thapa; Basanta Raj Adhikari. 2019. "Development of community-based landslide early warning system in the earthquake-affected areas of Nepal Himalaya." Journal of Mountain Science 16, no. 12: 2701-2713.

Chapter
Published: 31 December 2018 in Disaster Risk Reduction
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The civilization of Kathmandu Valley has started alongside the holy Bagmati River. However, rapid urban expansion and overpopulation have resulted not only in water shortage but ended up polluting the same water body based on which the settlements had grown, a classic example can be taken as that of Kathmandu and other surrounding cities in Kathmandu Valley. Due to resource availability and centralized government system, many people have migrated to the Kathmandu in recent decades. The annual population growth rate in the valley is 4.63% (CBS 2011) which has created haphazard urbanization resulting in water supply challenges. Geologically, Kathmandu Valley is an intermountain bowl-shaped basin comprised of both shallow and deep aquifers composed of fluvio-lacustrine sediments. Sandy gravel layers of northern side of the valley are considered the recharge zone due to the presence of unconsolidated coarse-grained deposits. Unfortunately, the area has the fastest urban growth and surface sealing, resulting in decrease in natural infiltration. Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the only one organization facilitated by the government, provides approximately 25–33% of the total demand of 350 MLD. Analyses have shown that there will not be water shortage between 2023 and 2025 if the Melamchi Water supply Project (MWSP) is completed within the allocated time. However, even that would not quench the thirst of the people as the demand is expected to rise in coming years. Proper planning, good governance, identification of water sources, and water treatment of wastewater are the long-term solutions for sufficient water supply. Alternate mitigation options, such as proper use of groundwater and surface water and spring water management with appropriate distribution system, would be useful. Unless the problem is tackled tactfully from different aspects and not only from demand supply and soon, the increasing social conflicts could be challenging for the planners in the future.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Suresh Das Shrestha; Narendra Man Shakya. Future Urban Water Crisis in Mountain Regions: Example of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Disaster Risk Reduction 2018, 169 -182.

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Suresh Das Shrestha, Narendra Man Shakya. Future Urban Water Crisis in Mountain Regions: Example of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Disaster Risk Reduction. 2018; ():169-182.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Suresh Das Shrestha; Narendra Man Shakya. 2018. "Future Urban Water Crisis in Mountain Regions: Example of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal." Disaster Risk Reduction , no. : 169-182.

Research article
Published: 30 November 2018 in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
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The number of deaths from landslides in Nepal has been increasing dramatically due to a complex combination of earthquakes, climate change, and an explosion of informal road construction that destabilizes slopes during the rainy season. This trend will likely rise as development continues, especially as China's Belt and Road Initiative seeks to construct three major trunk roads through the Nepali Himalaya that adjacent communities will seek to tie in to with poorly constructed roads. To determine the effect of these informal roads on generating landslides, we compare the distance between roads and landslides triggered by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake with those triggered by monsoon rainfalls, as well as a set of randomly located landslides to determine if the spatial correlation is strong enough to further imply causation. If roads are indeed causing landslides, we should see a clustering of rainfall-triggered landslides closer to the roads that accumulate and focus the water that facilitates failure. We find that in addition to a concentration of landslides in landscapes with more developed, agriculturally viable soils, that the rainfall-triggered landslides are more than twice as likely to occur within 100 m of a road than the landslides generated by the earthquake. The oversteepened slopes, poor water drainage and debris management provide the necessary conditions for failure during heavy monsoonal rains. Based on these findings, geoscientists, planners and policymakers must consider how road development affects the physical (and ecological), socio-political and economic factors that increase risk in exposed communities, alongside ecologically and financially sustainable solutions such as green roads.

ACS Style

Brian G. McAdoo; Michelle Quak; Kaushal R. Gnyawali; Basanta R. Adhikari; Sanjaya Devkota; Purna Lal Rajbhandari; Karen Sudmeier-Rieux. Roads and landslides in Nepal: how development affects environmental risk. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 2018, 18, 3203 -3210.

AMA Style

Brian G. McAdoo, Michelle Quak, Kaushal R. Gnyawali, Basanta R. Adhikari, Sanjaya Devkota, Purna Lal Rajbhandari, Karen Sudmeier-Rieux. Roads and landslides in Nepal: how development affects environmental risk. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. 2018; 18 (12):3203-3210.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Brian G. McAdoo; Michelle Quak; Kaushal R. Gnyawali; Basanta R. Adhikari; Sanjaya Devkota; Purna Lal Rajbhandari; Karen Sudmeier-Rieux. 2018. "Roads and landslides in Nepal: how development affects environmental risk." Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 18, no. 12: 3203-3210.

Preprint content
Published: 22 January 2018
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The number of deaths from landslides in Nepal has been increasing dramatically due to a complex combination of earthquakes, climate change, and an explosion of road construction. We compare the distribution of landslides in Sindhupalchok district before the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake with those generated by the earthquake to demonstrate that landslides are more than twice as likely to occur near a road than a random distribution. Based on this finding, geoscientists, planners and policymakers must consider how development needs overlap with physical (and ecological), socio-political and economic factors to generate risk in exposed communities.

ACS Style

Brian G. McAdoo; Michelle Quak; Kausha Gnyawali; Basanta Adhikari; Sanjay Devkota; Purna Rajbhandari; Karen Sudmeier. Brief communication: Roads and landslides in Nepal: How development affects risk. 2018, 2018, 1 -6.

AMA Style

Brian G. McAdoo, Michelle Quak, Kausha Gnyawali, Basanta Adhikari, Sanjay Devkota, Purna Rajbhandari, Karen Sudmeier. Brief communication: Roads and landslides in Nepal: How development affects risk. . 2018; 2018 ():1-6.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Brian G. McAdoo; Michelle Quak; Kausha Gnyawali; Basanta Adhikari; Sanjay Devkota; Purna Rajbhandari; Karen Sudmeier. 2018. "Brief communication: Roads and landslides in Nepal: How development affects risk." 2018, no. : 1-6.

Conference paper
Published: 11 June 2017 in Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides
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Open image in new windowPapers accepted in Session 2.4—Landslide Hazard, Risk Assessment and Prediction of the Fourth World Landslide Forum are pertinent to the advances in landslide science ranging from remote sensing to landslide forecasting and the validation of the landslide. Different case studies from Asia, Europe and other parts of the world have illustrated the new technology for landslide monitoring. As landslide risk and vulnerability is very important aspect of science for the human being especially in the mountainous regions, papers presented this session part will add very valuable information on our current understanding of the progress in landslide science.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Matjaz Mikos; Binod Tiwari; Yueping Yin; Kyoji Sassa. Summary of Papers in Session 2.4—Landslide Hazard, Risk Assessment and Prediction: Landslide Inventories and Susceptibility, Hazard Mapping Methods, Damage Potential—Part 1. Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides 2017, 691 -693.

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Matjaz Mikos, Binod Tiwari, Yueping Yin, Kyoji Sassa. Summary of Papers in Session 2.4—Landslide Hazard, Risk Assessment and Prediction: Landslide Inventories and Susceptibility, Hazard Mapping Methods, Damage Potential—Part 1. Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. 2017; ():691-693.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Matjaz Mikos; Binod Tiwari; Yueping Yin; Kyoji Sassa. 2017. "Summary of Papers in Session 2.4—Landslide Hazard, Risk Assessment and Prediction: Landslide Inventories and Susceptibility, Hazard Mapping Methods, Damage Potential—Part 1." Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides , no. : 691-693.

Journal article
Published: 26 August 2013 in Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
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The Thakkhola-Mustang Graben represents the extensional tectonic phase of the Tibetan Plateau uplift and whole Himalayan orogeny. It is situated at the northern side of the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna Ranges and south of the Yarlang Tsangpo Suture Zone. Stratigraphically, the oldest sedimentary units are the Tetang and Thakkhola Formations (Miocene), while the Sammargaon, Marpha and Kaligandaki Formations lying disconformably above these formations represent Plio-Pleistocene units. In this study, different lacustrine carbonates and calcretes were investigated within different lithological units and depositional environments to interpret the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatological evolution of the area. Geological mapping, construction of columnar sections and carbonate sampling were carried out in the field, and stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses and thin section analyses were done in the laboratory. Lacustrine facies contained abundant pelletal, charophytic algae, oncolitic algal micritic palustrine limestones with ostracods, and micritic mudstones with root traces. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis from the carbonates show a range of δ13C values from −0.6‰ to 11.1‰ (V-PDB) and δ18O values from −13.5‰ to −25‰ (V-PDB). Discontinuous growth of oncolites and spherical pellets (25–40 μm in diameter) in micritic limestone, algal mats and charophyte algae indicate the presence of both shallow and deep water carbonates. Ostracods in dark micritic carbonates indicate quiet and calm water conditions. Microfabrics of the carbonates suggest that they were deposited in a flat and shallow lacustrine environment. The δ18O values of the investigated limestones of the Thakkhola-Mustang Graben suggest that it attained the current elevation level prior to the east-west extension of the Himalaya.

ACS Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Michael Wagreich. Microfacies analysis and paleoenvironmental significance of palustrine carbonates in the Thakkhola-Mustang Graben (Nepal Himalaya). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 2013, 77, 117 -126.

AMA Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Michael Wagreich. Microfacies analysis and paleoenvironmental significance of palustrine carbonates in the Thakkhola-Mustang Graben (Nepal Himalaya). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. 2013; 77 ():117-126.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Basanta Raj Adhikari; Michael Wagreich. 2013. "Microfacies analysis and paleoenvironmental significance of palustrine carbonates in the Thakkhola-Mustang Graben (Nepal Himalaya)." Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 77, no. : 117-126.