The 1555 Kashmir earthquake occurred at around midnight in the month of

Ashvin Ashvin or Ashwin or Ashwan (; bn, আশ্বিন; hi, आश्विन; or, ଆଶ୍ୱିନ; Malay/Indonesian: ''Aswin''; Thai: ''Asawin''), also known as Aswayuja, is the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, the solar Tam ...

in the

Hindu calendar The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a s ...

, or

September September is the ninth month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the third of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the fourth of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. September in the Northern H ...

in the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

, although the exact day of occurrence is not known. The

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

seriously impacted the

Kashmir Valley The Kashmir Valley, also known as the ''Vale of Kashmir'', is an intermontane valley concentrated in the Kashmir Division of the Indian- union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The valley is bounded on the southwest by the Pir Panjal Range and ...

in present-day

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and northwestern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. A

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

() of 7.6 to 8.0 and

Modified Mercalli intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of XII (''Extreme'') has been estimated for the earthquake. Thought to be one of the most destructive in the

, the earthquake caused serious widespread damage and ground effects, killing an estimated 600–60,000 individuals.

Tectonic setting

Northern Pakistan and India are situated at the corner of an active destructive plate boundary that separates the Indian Plate from the Eurasian Plate. The boundary is defined along the Main Himalayan Thrust where the Indian Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate. The slightly oblique convergence occurs at a rate of 17 ± 2 mm/yr along the

Main Himalayan Thrust The Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) is a décollement under the Himalaya Range. This thrust fault follows a NW-SE strike, reminiscent of an arc, and gently dip towards the north, beneath the region. It is the largest active continental megathrust f ...

while the nearby

Karakoram fault system The Karakoram fault is an oblique-slip fault system in the Himalayan region across India and Asia. The slip along the fault accommodates radial expansion of the Himalayan arc, northward indentation of the Pamir Mountains, and eastward lateral ex ...

accommodates right-lateral strike-slip movement at 5 ± 2 mm/yr. The high convergence rate means many of the plate boundary faults are accommodating strain while locked, frequently releasing them in moderate-sized earthquakes, and sometimes in very large events. The occurrence of large earthquakes makes the Kashmir region vulnerable to deadly earthquakes.

Earthquake

The earthquake is thought to have been associated with a rupture on an active

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

that forms part of the plate boundary of the Kashmir Himalayas. Until recently, the source fault and possible

surface ruptures A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...

of the earthquake have yet to be identified due to the lack of information of the event, in addition to the paleoseismicity of the region is poorly studied. The

Main Frontal Thrust The Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), also known as the Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) is a geological fault in the Himalayas that defines the boundary between the Himalayan foothills and Indo-Gangetic Plain. The fault is well expressed on the surfac ...

, Medlicott-Wadia (Riasi) Thrust, as well as the Kashmir Basin Fault (then the Balapur Fault) has been proposed as the seismogenic structure responsible for the earthquake. The Medlicott-Wadia Thrust is expressed on the surface as two branching fault structures; the Scorpion and Rain faults. Paleoseismic studies have identified three large earthquakes on the Rain Fault, and two on the Scorpion Fault in the past 3,500 years. An account in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

describing a destructive earthquake in 1250 BC corresponded to the oldest event which was dated at 1661 BC and 929 BC. The 1250 BC earthquake produced several meters of slip at the surface. Another earthquake occurred between 1118 BC and 929 BC with less than 1 meter of maximum slip. The Rain Fault may have ruptured in one or two earthquakes sometime between 1110 BC and 660 AD, and is possible that the two faults were involved in an earthquake in approximately 1000 BC.

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

records also corresponded well with two earthquakes on the Rain Fault dated between 660 AD and 1470 AD. The most recent paleoearthquake rupture is dated at 1470 AD or later. Large

colluvial wedges Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a variable combinati ...

associated with the rupture suggest the event caused high intensity shaking at the surface. The date of the rupture might suggest it was associated with the 1555 AD earthquake. An earlier trenching survey conducted at the Chandigarh Fault near the

also found a

surface rupture In seismology, surface rupture (or ground rupture, or ground displacement) is the visible offset of the ground surface when an earthquake rupture along a fault affects the Earth's surface. Surface rupture is opposed by buried rupture, where the ...

that likely formed in 1426 to 1700 AD. This surface rupture could correspond to the 1555 AD earthquake which is had an estimated rupture length of 150 km.

Future hazard

In the wake of the

2005 Kashmir earthquake The 2005 Kashmir earthquake occurred at on 8 October in Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir. It was centred near the city of Muzaffarabad, and also affected nearby Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some areas of Indian-administered Jammu and ...

, much attention has been given to the Kashmir region in understanding the earthquake tectonics and assessing the seismic risk. The 1555 earthquake rupture is located roughly between that of the 2005 and 1905 Kangra earthquakes. No major seismic events have occurred since the 1555 earthquake in the 250-km-long Kashmir seismic gap on the Main Himalayan plate boundary fault. With a slip rate of 16 mm/yr, the accumulated slip since 1555 is estimated at 7.4 meters. If the 1555 earthquake released all the elastic energy accumulated since the previous earthquake, and fresh accumulation of stress began after the 1555 event, the next large earthquake could be as large as 7.8 .

Historical description

The devastation of the 1555 earthquake was well documented in

and

. The historical accounts described a series of earthquakes, the strongest occurring at midnight in the month Asvina of the year 30 in the

. It describes the

rocked by strong tremors at night while many of the residents were asleep. Many dwellings collapsed onto their residents, killing them. Homes that were well-constructed with firm foundations were not spared from the destruction; collapsing as well. Large ground fissures and sinkholes appeared in the landscape, swallowing many homes. Survivors broke through their roofs to escape from their damaged homes. Some wood-constructed structures fell into the

Jhelum River The Jhelum River (/dʒʰeːləm/) is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then ...

and floated downstream. Those who survived the collapses managed to escape from the debris. Many towns and villages were completely destroyed in Kashmir. In the communities of Jalu and Damper, the force of the earthquake sheared off the foundations of homes and roots of trees, and displaced them onto the opposite bank of the

. The town of Madar, located at the base of a hill, was buried by a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

, causing the deaths of 600 to 60,000 people. The two villages Hassanpur and Hussainpur, located on the opposite side of the

Veshaw River The Veshaw River is a major tributary to the River Jhelum located in Kulgam District in the Kashmir Valley in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It originates in the Pir Panjal Range and forms a waterfall at Aharbal. Course ...

, was suddenly shifted to the other side during the earthquake. The earthquake formed large cracks in the ground, stopped water from flowing from existing natural springs, while in other locations, water erupted from the ground. Damage was reported up to 50 km southwest and 140 km southeast of

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

. The Laxmi Narayana Temple in

Chamba Chamba may refer to: People * Gilberto Chamba (born 1961), Ecuadorian serial killer * Jessica Chamba (born 1981), European activist Places Ghana * Chamba, a town in the Northern Region India * Chamba (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Himachal Pradesh ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

, also suffered some damage to its pillars. Months prior to the

mainshock In seismology, the mainshock is the largest earthquake in a sequence, sometimes preceded by one or more foreshocks, and almost always followed by many aftershocks. Foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic eve ...

, there was a series of foreshocks. An

aftershock In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...

sequence that lasted several days was also documented in the scripts. On some days, multiple aftershocks could be felt. This categorizes the 1555 Kashmir earthquake sequence as a classic foreshock-mainshock-aftershock earthquake sequence. The famous historical documentation of towns shifted across riverbanks during the 1555 event was likely a gradual process rather than sudden. Tilted tree stumps at the bank of the

at the locations described suggest slumping due to ground failure along the riverbank. Restoration and repair works continued for two months after the earthquake.

References

{{Earthquakes in India 1555 in Asia 1555 in India 1555 16th-century earthquakes Earthquakes in India Earthquakes in Pakistan Geology of the Himalaya History of Kashmir

Tectonic setting

Earthquake

Future hazard

Historical description

See also

References