(TibetanReview.net, Nov19’25) – The Himalayan regions, which encompasses Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan, as well as parts of India and Pakistan, and which has been hit by several devastating earthquakes in the past, faces the possibility of two major such geological disasters, potentially reaching a magnitude of 8.8, reported mathrubhumi.com Nov 17, citing a four-year study. Another study is stated to show, as reported by timesofindia.com Nov 18, that the Indian tectonic plate hasn’t just been sliding, it has been splitting and that too for decades, raising the question whether this means the occurrence of more earthquakes.
The first study above was stated to have been led by the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad (ISRO), conducted in collaboration with scientists from NASA and Caltech. Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the research was led by Dr KM Sreejith of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, and Prof. P.S. Sunil, head of the Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics at CUSAT. DrAjish P Saji (IIG, Mumbai). and MCM Jasir (research scholar, Space Applications Centre) were stated to be key contributors.
While the news report did not say approximately when or where the quakes may hit, it said the study analysed parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both sharing borders with parts of southern Tibet, using satellite-based geodetic data and mathematical models.
The new report said researchers from CUSAT, the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism and ISRO, had reached similar conclusions earlier in an article published in Geophysical Journal International.
It said that although predicting the exact timing of an earthquake is impossible, both studies highlight the heightened seismic risk in the Himalayan belt and the urgent need for preparedness. The team was stated to have found that the tectonic stress accumulated in the mid-Himalayan region wad significantly higher than previously measured.
The report noted that the Himalayas, formed nearly 50 million years ago from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, have been the site of repeated major earthquakes as stress builds up and releases over centuries.
The last major quake in Nepal struck in 2015, measuring 7.8 and killing around 9,000 people. In the Indian Himalayan region, the last major quake in recent years occurred in Uttarkashi in 1991 (6.8 magnitude), which killed 761 people. Another quake struck Chamoli in 1999 with a magnitude of 6.6, leaving 103 dead. And then, of course, there was the major earthquake which hit Tibet’s Mt Everest county of Dingri early this year, killing at least 126 people.
Meanwhile, the timesofindia.com report noted that for a long time, scientists believed that the Indian Plate moved as a relatively solid unit, smoothly sliding (a process called underplating) beneath Tibet’s crust. However, new three-dimensional seismic imaging using S-wave receiver function techniques has challenged this simple picture.
It cited a recent geological study as showing that the Indian Plate is not a uniform, unbroken slab beneath the Himalayas. Instead, it warps and tears along its length, especially around 90° to 92° east longitude, near key rift zones such as Yadong-Gulu and Cona-Sangri.
In contrast to the western Himalayas where the plate remains mostly intact and slides beneath the crust about 100 kilometers north of the Yarlung-Zangbo suture, the eastern section shows noticeable changes. Here, the lithospheric mantle of the Indian Plate appears to have delaminated, meaning the dense lower part has peeled away from the upper crust and sunk deeper into the Earth’s mantle.
This peeling or delamination is stated to create an asthenospheric wedge — a molten, soft rock zone sandwiched between the separated layers. The newly forming Tibetan lithosphere extends approximately 100 kilometers south of the suture, indicating an ongoing growth and evolution of Tibet’s base. This discovery reveals that the Indian Plate beneath Tibet is not just colliding but undergoing a process of internal breaking and deformation, significantly altering how geologists understand the dynamics below this mountainous region.
The report said the tearing and delamination of the Indian Plate introduce additional stresses into the Earth’s crust that could trigger earthquakes and contribute to the formation of rift zones.
The report said Simon Klemperer, a geophysicist at Stanford University, had talked about the significance of these findings in the same study, which was also presented at the American Geopysical Union. He has said, “The tearing and sinking of the plate could create new stress points in the Earth’s crust, triggering more frequent and potentially more powerful quakes.” Furthermore, the deep fractures such as those at the Cona-Sangri Rift seem directly linked to this tearing, heightening seismic risks in the area.