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Three moderate earthquakes on November 9, 2022, November 12, 2022, and January 24, 2023 occurred in Western Nepal region of Magnitudes 5.8, 5.4 and 5.8 respectively. The epicenters were ∼100 km away from the Uttarakhand State Earthquake Early Warning System (UEEWS) network which consists of 169 seismic sensors in oval shape network with larger axis of about 280 km in East-West and 120 km in North-South in Uttarakhand-Dharchula seismic gap, a region of central seismic gap of Indian Himalaya. The strong motions recorded by UEEWS were fetched in real-time at the central server in Roorkee through dedicated private network. The central server issued notifications and warning alerts to the public of Uttarakhand on the mobile app, 'Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert' installed by them. The success story of issuance of warning along with location of triggered sensors, epicenter of earthquakes and lead time people got in these events are elaborated in this article. Specially, these three moderate earthquakes albeit not triggered in the instrumented area, issuance of warning to the public by UEEWS network is noteworthy. Encouragingly, these events have been considered an example to rationalize establishment of earthquake early warning system in the other parts of the Himalayan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the largest active terrestrial carbon reservoir, which behaves both as a sink and source for atmospheric carbon. The same is maximum in the forest soil ofAbies pindrow(128 t ha−1) and minimum inPinus roxburghii(69 t ha−1). The mitigation potential is also found to be maximum in Alpine forest soil (i.e., 1.84) inAbies pindrowand minimum in the chir (i.e., 1.00) inP. Roxburghii. This indicates that alpine forest soil can hold nearly two times more SOC than chir and hence it behaves as a CO2sink. The overall average content of SOC and carbon dioxide equivalent under all land use was estimated at 91.29 t ha−1and 334.11 t ha−1, respectively. The objective of this study is to estimate the spatial variability of SOC stocks in the catchment of both the Tehri and Koteshwar hydroelectric reservoir using field investigations, laboratory measurements, and geostatistical methods. The study provides an estimation for the amount of carbon reaching to the reservoir through various sources, where it undergoes aerobic and anaerobic degradation, thereby releasing green house gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. The information provided in this article will be useful for policy-makers and environmentalists for undertaking appropriate conservation plans to mitigate GHGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seismic hazard has been computed for the city of Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. The city lies in the Himalayan foothills between two faults: the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Himalayan Frontal Fault (HFF). The contributions from these two faults have been modelled differently in a probabilistic model. While the MBT has been modelled with a Poissonian earthquake distribution, the HFF has been modelled both with a characteristic earthquake recurrence model and a Poissonian model. The hazard scenarios reveal different patterns depending on the classical approaches and the characteristic models applied, and the obtained results indicate that Dehradun may experience PGA shaking around 2.2 m/s for 225 years return period and around 4.6 m/s for a 2,500 years return period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smartphones are one of the most affordable and familiar devices available to people that are used for many scientific applications. Thus, implementing a dedicated mobile app for earthquake early warning (EEW) systems is one of the best options to save money and time to achieve dissemination of earthquake warnings to the public at large. This paper describes the development of a Warning Dissemination System comprising field sirens and mobile apps and presents details of developing a smartphone app for Android and iOS operating systems. The app is designed for the EEW system currently operational in the Northwest Himalayan State of Uttarakhand in India. The app named "Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert" is freely available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store and has already been downloaded more than 10,000 times. This app uses Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service for sending earthquake early warnings to the users. The user's basic information and FCM token are saved at the warning server in a database during the user registration process. The information will be shared with the disaster response authorities after a damaging earthquake to rescue affected users requiring help. This app also provides online earthquake safety recommendations and guidance, including how to prepare yourself, find a safe hiding place, and do's and don'ts during an earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]