Options for developing modernized geodetic datum for Nepal following the April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake
-
Chris Pearson
,
Niraj Manandhar
Abstract
Along with the damage to buildings and infrastructure, the April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake caused significant deformation over a large area of eastern Nepal with displacements of over 2 m recorded in the vicinity of Kathmandu.
Nepal currently uses a classical datum developed in 1984 by the Royal (UK) Engineers in collaboration with the Nepal Survey Department. It has served Nepal well; however, the recent earthquakes have provided an impetus for developing a semi-dynamic datum that will be based on ITRF2014 and have the capacity to correct for tectonic deformation.
In the scenario we present here, the datum would be based on ITRF2014 with a reference epoch set some time after the end of the current sequence of earthquakes. The deformation model contains a grid of the secular velocity field combined with models of the Gorkha Earthquake and the May 12 Mw7.3 aftershock. We have developed a preliminary velocity field by collating GPS derived crustal velocities from four previous studies for Nepal and adjacent parts of China and India and aligning them to the ITRF. Patches for the co-seismic part of the deformation for the Gorkha earthquake and the May 12, 2015 Mw 7.2 aftershock are based on published dislocation models.
High order control would be a CORS network based around the existing Nepal GPS Array. Coordinates for existing lower order control would be determined by readjusting existing survey measurements and these would be combined with a series of new control stations spread throughout Nepal.
Funding statement: Much of the work described in this paper was conducted during a 5 week visit to the Survey Department of Nepal by Chris Pearson, which was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand on two HOMF grants in 2015 and 2016.
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge Diego Melgar for making the dislocation model of the Gorkha earthquake and its major aftershock available to us prior to publication. We also thank the University of Otago for waiving normal overheads for this project. This manuscript benefited from a review by Richard Stanaway.
References
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
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- Papers presented at the FIG Working Week 2016
- Editorial
- Present-day kinematics of the Sundaland plate
- Options for developing modernized geodetic datum for Nepal following the April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- On the determination of transformation parameters between different ITRS realizations using Procrustes approach in Turkey
- Object tracking with robotic total stations: Current technologies and improvements based on image data
- Impact of spatial correlations on the surface estimation based on terrestrial laser scanning
- Comparison of precise orbit determination methods of zero-difference kinematic, dynamic and reduced-dynamic of GRACE-A satellite using SHORDE software
- Papers presented at the FIG Working Week 2016
- Editorial
- Present-day kinematics of the Sundaland plate
- Options for developing modernized geodetic datum for Nepal following the April 25, 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake
- An investigation into the performance of real-time GPS+GLONASS Precise Point Positioning (PPP) in New Zealand
- Wi-Fi location fingerprinting using an intelligent checkpoint sequence
