BETHLEHEM, Pa., Oct. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- The earthquake that struck the border of India and Pakistan on Saturday, Oct. 8, occurred in a region that has seen more than its share of seismological events, says Anne Meltzer, a seismologist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Meltzer has co-supervised two major international seismology research projects in the Himalayas.
Meltzer and Lehigh geochronologist Peter Zeitler led a five-year study of the vicinity of Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, highest peak in the western Himalayas, and are directing a second five-year study of Namche Barwa, highest peak in the eastern Himalayas. The current study involves 16 researchers from seven universities and is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Continental Dynamics Program.
The scientists are attempting to determine whether and how much the forces of surface erosion - wind, rain, rivers - influence the tectonic forces below that give rise to earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain-building.
The Oct. 8 earthquake devastated northern Pakistan and parts of India and Afghanistan. An estimated 30,000 people lost their lives and millions more were left homeless.
The earthquake, says Meltzer, is the direct result of the northward push of the Indian subcontinent into southern flank of the Eurasian continent. The steady advance of the subcontinent is lifting the Himalaya Mountains, the world's tallest range, higher while exposing fault lines in the overlying plate.
The earth's surface is covered by seven to nine major tectonic plates and a number of minor plates, or platelets, says Meltzer. The plates - huge slabs of semi-solid rock beneath continents and oceans - vary in size from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers across and in thickness from 15km to 200km.
Meltzer has studied earthquakes and deformation of the earth in the Himalayas, the western U.S., the Caribbean and South America. Recently, she completed a three-year term as chair of the executive committee of IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology), a federally funded consortium of 100 institutions that have research programs in seismology.
Meltzer, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of earth and environmental sciences at Lehigh, is available for further commentary. To contact Dean Meltzer, please call Linda Harbrecht at 610-758-4838 or at 610-217-0068.
Media Contact: Linda Harbrecht, 610-758-4838 or 610-217-0068
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