Detection and potential early warning of catastrophic flow events with regional seismic networks
Kristen Cook, Rajesh Rekapalli, Michael Dietze, Marco Pilz, Simone Cesca, N. Purnachandra Rao, D. Srinagesh, Himangshu Paul, Malte Metz, Prantik Mandal, G. Suresh, Fabrice Cotton, V. M. Tiwari, Niels Hovius
Abstract
Early warning is a critical potential tool for mitigating the impacts of large mass wasting and flood events, a major hazard in the Himalaya. We used data from a dense seismic network in Uttarakhand, India, to detect and track a fatal rockslide to mass flow to flood cascade and examine the potential for regional networks to provide early warning for extreme flow events. Detection limits of the 7 February 2021 event depend on the nature of the active process and on the anthropogenic and environmental seismic noise levels at each station. With the existing network, a seismic monitoring system could have detected all event phases from up to 100 kilometers and provided downstream warnings within minutes of event initiation.