Mayank Joshi

G B Pant National institute of Himalayan Environment · Sikkim Regional Centre

On April 28 2021, an earthquake of MW 6.4 occurred near Sonitpur, Assam, India. The epicenter was 43 km away from Tezpur, Assam with a focal depth of 34 km. The National Center for Seismology (NCS), Delhi reported the maximum intensity of MMI–V whereas the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported the maximum intensity of MMI–VII. Preliminary...

Local knowledge systems provide a solid foundation for rural water conservation and management. Based on data acquired through a questionnaire survey, this research examines traditional soil and water conservation methods in the villages of Sikkim Himalaya. During the years 2018–20, information was gathered through a questionnaire survey of 305 hou...

The Palaeozoic granites forming the Dalhousie pluton occur as an elongated body intruded into the core of an antiform in Salkhala metasedimentary rocks and are referred to herein as Dalhousie granites (DG). The studied mesoscopic structures, for example, well‐developed and randomly distributed megacrysts of K‐feldspar at the core part of massif, sh...

Springs and streams are essential sources of fresh water for the Himalayan population. On global and regional extents, these resources are being severely affected by climate change as well as anthropogenic activities. However, the effects of seismicity also have considerable influence on springs, but negligibly studied in that aspect. Crustal defor...

Sikkim, a north‐eastern state of India, has a very specific and unique place in the tourism map of India. Every year, lakhs of people visit the state. To accommodate such floating population in the area, some big towered home stays/hotels have been constructed. However, the area is under the threat of many natural disasters such as earthquake, land...

On 7th February 2021, a sudden flash flood in the Rishi and Dhauli Ganga rivers in Uttarakhand Himalaya killed 80 people and left 124 people missing. Two hydropower projects were completely destroyed. The flash flood was caused by an avalanche and debris flow. In the present study, spatio-temporal variation in dynamics of glaciers and meteorologica...

An attempt has been made to reconstruct the landform evolution in monsoon-dominated the Ravi River Valley (a major tributary of the Indus River), Chamba Nappe, Lesser Himalaya based on detailed field mapping, supported by the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dates. In the upper Ravi River Valley sediments are generated by glaciation-paraglac...

Himalaya, the highest mountain system in the world and house of important biodiversity hotspot, is sensitive to projected warming by climate change. Rhizocarpon geographicum (map lichen), a crustose lichen, grows in high mountain ranges, is a potential indicator species of climate change. In the present study, MaxEnt species distribution modeling a...

Detection and mapping of landslides is one of the most important techniques used for reducing the impact of natural disasters especially in the Himalaya, owing to its high amount of tectonic deformation, seismicity, and unfavorable climatic conditions. Moreover, the northeastern part of the Himalaya, severely affected by landslides every monsoon, i...

Land subsidence or soil piping is very common phenomenon in the Southern Western Ghats-India, which occurs during the monsoon seasons. The recognition of these subsurface features remains challenging due to its subsurface nature. Their detection is necessary as it can triggers landslides. In the present study, geo-physical method (electrical resist...

Every year, during the monsoon period (June–September), series of land subsidence incidences are reported from the southern Western Ghats in India. These land subsidences occur primarily due to subsurface erosion, which leads to formation of soil pipes. These soil pipes are geo-morphologically an outcome of land degradation process that significant...

The Himalaya grew progressively with the development of fold-thrust systems towards foreland from north to south. The Cenozoic foreland basin of the Sub-Himalaya zone was developed in front of the rising Himalaya. It is bounded between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT). The Himalayan Frontal Fault zone encompasse...

Landslide is one of the devastating natural phenomenon that threatens human life and property. Every year a number of persons lost their lives due to the landslides. Therefore, a better understanding and characterization of landslide is very essential for adopting mitigation strategies to contain the adversities of this natural hazard. Information...

Deformed monuments can be used to help constrain the timing of an earthquake, its epicenter, and the extent of its damage. In the present work, we studied the ancient temples in the Chamba and Bharmour area from the seventh century onward in the Ravi River catchment of the Chamba district of western Himachal Pradesh, India, which lies in the Kashmi...

The Kangra reentrant constitutes a similar to 80-km-wide zone of fold-thrust belt made of Cenozoic strata of the foreland basin in NW Sub-Himalaya. Earlier workers estimated the total long-term shortening rate of 14 +/- A 2 mm/year by balanced cross-section between the Main Boundary Thrust and the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. Geologically estimated ra...