TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schwanghart, Wolfgang
A1  - Bernhardt, Anne
A1  - Stolle, Amelie
A1  - Hoelzmann, Philipp
A1  - Adhikari, Basanta R.
A1  - Andermann, Christoff
A1  - Tofelde, Stefanie
A1  - Merchel, Silke
A1  - Rugel, Georg
A1  - Fort, Monique
A1  - Korup, Oliver
T1  - Repeated catastrophic valley infill following medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya
T2  - Science
N2  - Geomorphic footprints of past large Himalayan earthquakes are elusive, although they are urgently needed for gauging and predicting recovery times of seismically perturbed mountain landscapes. We present evidence of catastrophic valley infill following at least three medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya. Radiocarbon dates from peat beds, plant macrofossils, and humic silts in fine-grained tributary sediments near Pokhara, Nepal’s second-largest city, match the timing of nearby M > 8 earthquakes in ~1100, 1255, and 1344 C.E. The upstream dip of tributary valley fills and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry of their provenance rule out local sources. Instead, geomorphic and sedimentary evidence is consistent with catastrophic fluvial aggradation and debris flows that had plugged several tributaries with tens of meters of calcareous sediment from a Higher Himalayan source >60 kilometers away.
Y1  - 2016
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/45695
SN  - 0036-8075
SN  - 1095-9203
VL  - 351
SP  - 147
EP  - 150
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  -