NISAR satellite to map Himalayas’ seismic zones

NISAR satellite is going to map the most earthquake-prone regions in the Himalayas with unprecedented regularity and aims to build an advance warning system of land subsidence and earthquakes. 

• Need of the initiative:
• A large section of the Himalayan region falls in Zone V, implying the highest risk of strong earthquakes.
• The NISAR satellite will use two frequency bands: the L-band and S-band to image the Himalayan region.
• These two frequency bands will together provide high-resolution, all-weather data from the satellite that is expected to follow a sun-synchronous orbit.
• Frequency to map: The seismically active Himalayan region that will, every 12 days, create a “deformation map”.
• The map is going Map the Strain which refers to the deformation that occurs in rocks when it is under pressure from other rocks, usually due to movements of continental plates that are sliding, colliding, or subducting against each other.

• Scientists from the Geological Survey of India in 2021 published a “strain map” of the Himalayas based on data from 1,252 GPS stations along the Himalayas.
• It identified regions that had the greatest odds of generating earthquakes of magnitude above 8 and their extent.

• It will also serve as a valuable tool to give warning of land subsidence as scientists can use the data collected and under all-weather conditions to study deformation patterns.
• The geoscience community can use this to determine how strain is building up in various parts of the Himalayas.

Emergence of Himalayas:

• About 225 million years ago, India was a large island still situated off the Australian coast, and a vast ocean (called Tethys Sea) separated India from the Asian continent.
• When Pangaea broke apart about 200 million years ago, India began to forge northward.
• By studying the history -- and ultimately the closing-- of the Tethys, scientists have reconstructed India's northward journey.
• About 80 million years ago, India was located roughly 6,400 km south of the Asian continent, moving northward at a rate of about 9 m a century.
• When India rammed into Asia about 40 to 50 million years ago, its northward advance slowed by about half.
• The collision and associated decrease in the rate of plate movement are interpreted to mark the beginning of the rapid uplift of the Himalayas.

Himalayas and vulnerability:

• The Himalaya is a fragile mountain range that is still rising as the Indian plate continues to push into the Asian plate.
• The mountains are mainly the shale upwelling of the sea, which makes them quite unstable.
• In fact, they are largely held together by the forests that they support.

Concerns:

• Extreme weather events - With the consequent loss of forest cover and extreme weather events (the 2013 Kedarnath flood), catastrophes have occurred at a steady beat in all of Uttarakhand.
• Soil and water degradation - The local soil and water have been degraded.
• Decline in natural springs - The number of natural mineral water springs is declining.
• Increasing landslides - The number of landslides is also shooting up.