Abstract

North-east India, bounded by the Himalayan arc to the north and the Burmese arc to the east, remains the node of interest for earth scientists for its complex and unresolved tectonics. The area, which has produced two great earthquakes (1897, 1950) and several other big earthquakes, is seismically very active. The 1897 Shillong earthquake ranks high among one of the most devastating earthquakes of the world with a magnitude of 8.7. In spite of being one of the best documented earthquake of the world, there still exists many unresolved issues regarding the geometry and location of the fault causing that great earthquake. Previous concept was that the earthquake occurred due to a gently north dipping fault. Latter, a pop-up structure of Shillong plateau is proposed in which a