UTEP professor, students flew to Nepal to study earthquake aftershocks
A professor and two graduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso are traveling more than 8,000 miles to collect data on the aftershocks from the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal in April.
Geological sciences assistant professor Marianne Karplus, seismologist Ph.D. candidate Ezer Patlan and incoming geological sciences Ph.D. student Mohan Pant were in Nepal June 8 to July 4 and will go back this fall as part of their research to better understand the Himalayan fault.
The Nepal quake measured a 7.8 on the Richter scale and killed more than 9,000 people in the South Asian country near Bhutan, after which the university's architecture is modeled.
The researchers set up 20 seismometers in areas that experienced earthquakes and aftershocks to collect data on seismic waves, Karplus said.
"Our broader goal is to understand that region, to have a better sense of how these large earthquakes come along," she said.
Data the seismometers collect will yield, through computer processing, information about the aftershocks' location and magnitude, as well as the speed of waves traveling through different layers of rock.
"There's a lot of different information that can come out of Earth's surface," Karplus said. "It gives us a better understating of the Earth's structure in the area."
For now the team returned with preliminary data. The seismic stations, as Karplus refers to them, are still in place, and the team will travel periodically to Nepal to collect more data.
Karplus said aftershocks — mostly small — typically follow after a large earthquake for up to a year. During their time in Nepal, Patlan was asleep during several aftershocks, but Karplus said she felt one of a 5.0 magnitude at 6 o'clock one morning.
Nepal and its neighboring countries have long been at risk of earthquakes because India and Asia's tectonic plates are colliding; the Indian Plate has been forcing its way under the Eurasian Plate for thousands of years. The collision of the plates formed the Himalayan mountains and continues to create an uplift in the region, Karplus said. When the plates suddenly slip past each other, energy that was created from the tension is released through seismic waves.
"You basically have a lot of stress building up and then that stress is released by earthquakes," Karplus said.
While many researchers are using satellite images and GPS data to study the Nepal earthquake, Karplus said it's important to use information directly from the ground to ensure the data is interpreted correctly.
"(Seismometers) really are the only way you can get detailed information about these aftershock locations and depths," she said.
All the different types of data sets lead to a better picture of how faults create earthquakes, but the information their seismometers will collect will lead to a "very unique data set," Karplus said.
"It's pretty exciting to think about the results that could come from this," she said.
Most of the researchers' time in Nepal was spent installing the seismometers, which took about two to four hours. Traveling from one location to the next, the team set up one a day along roads or on the property of Nepalese residents who allowed them to use their land.
The researchers hired locals to be their drivers and used road maps and Google Maps to place the seismometers evenly throughout Nepal.
In the end they covered most of central Nepal. Some places weren't accessible because of landslides, Karplus said.
The seismometers, which were placed in holes dug in the ground, are accompanied by a box that records the data, as well as a solar panel that charges the battery of the seismometer. The equipment was shipped to Nepal before Karplus, Pant and Patlan embarked on their trip.
The UTEP researchers split into two groups and worked with a U.S. Geological Survey intern and contract employee, and five Oregon State University professors and students.
Along with Oregon State's seismometers, 41 stations were set up. UTEP also collaborated with Stanford University, who provided some of the equipment. Nepal's Department of Mines and Geology, a government organization that conducts environmental studies, also helped and offered teams to translate.
Pant, who will be the primary researcher working with the data, is from Nepal and helped translate, too. He is still in his homeland for now.
The UTEP researchers said the people from villages they worked in were receptive of their work.
"They felt happy to be part of the team," Patlan said. "We acknowledged them and they welcome us back."
Inevitably, the researchers saw the devastating aftermath in many of the cities or towns to which they traveled. Some of the seismometers were placed in areas where people lost their homes, Karplus said. Other times they drove by villages where people were rebuilding their homes.
"It was very clear that it's a difficult time right now for people," Karplus said. "You definitely get a sense of the magnitude (and) how much it has affected people's life. It makes you want to do anything you can to help."
The researchers donated water filters to families that allowed them to set up the seismometers. Karplus said the they will take more when they return because they saw that people's ability to get clean water was affected by the earthquakes.
The research for this project is funded by the Science Foundation's rapid-funding program. Karplus submitted a proposal to study aftershock sequences in Nepal a week after the initial earthquake, she said.
The researchers will travel to Nepal to collect data every three months until they remove the seismometers, which is planned for January, although it may be longer, Karplus said. Their next trip to Nepal will be in August or September.
David Hernandez may be reached at 546-6154.