Ground Motion Prediction Equation For Earthquakes Along The Western Himalayan Arc

A critical element in seismic hazard estimation is the ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) which relates expected seismic intensity at a point from an earthquake of a given magnitude and location. Presently available GMPEs for plate interface thrust earthquakes along the Himalayan arc suffer from limited number of strong motion recordings used in their derivation. In this study we use a larger dataset, including recordings from the 2015 Gorhka, Nepal earthquake (M_w 7.9) and some of its larger aftershocks, to derive GMPE for earthquakes along the Western Himalayan arc. The proposed GMPE should give more reliable estimation of ground motion parameters at hard sites along the arc and in Peninsular India, and at soft sites in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.