Data Publication

PRESSurE suspended sediment data time series, Gorkha earthquake, Nepal

Andermann, Christoff | Puhl, David | Zimmermann, Bernhard | Hughes, Genevieve | Sitaula, Ambika Prasad | Adhikari, Basanta R. | Baidya, Krishna Pyari

GFZ Data Services

(2024)

This data set was taken within the Perturbations of Earth Surface Processes by Large Earthquakes PRESSurE Project (https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/section/geomorphology/projects/pressure/), Hazard and Risk Team (HART) project by the German Center for Geosciences GFZ Potsdam. This project aims to better understand the role of earthquakes on earth surface processes. Strong earthquakes cause transient perturbations of the near Earth’s surface system. These include the widespread landsliding and subsequent mass movement and the loading of rivers with sediments. In addition, rock mass is shattered during the event, forming cracks that affect rock strength and hydrological conductivity. Often overlooked in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, these perturbations can represent a major part of the overall disaster with an impact that can last for years before restoring to background conditions. Thus, the relaxation phase is part of the seismical-ly induced change by an earthquake and needs to be monitored in order to understand the full impact of earthquakes on the Earth system. Following the April 2015 Mw 7.9 Gorkha earthquake, 6 hydrological stations were installed on the Buri Gandaki, Trisuli, Bhotekoshi, Sunkoshi, Koshi and Kahole Khola rivers, draining the epicentral area. The stations were operated for 4 monsoon sea-sons from May/June 2015 to October 2018. The stations were equipped with river stage height measurements and manned daily river sampling for suspended river sediments and water geo-chemistry. In this data publication we present the data from the small head water catchment Ka-hule Khole (see also Andermann et al. 2021, https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.6.2021.003). Bhotekoshi at Barabise, Sunkoshi at Khurkot and Koshi at Chatara. The samples were filtered at the sampling location and analyzed at the GFZ Potsdam SedLab, section 4.6 Geomorphology, for suspended sed-iment concentration and grainsize distribution. A small sample batch of suspended sediment concentrations was published already in Cook et al. 2018. The samples BA_01.07.2016 – BA_25.07.2016 have been published in this manuscript in figure 4. This data publication contains 920 suspended sediment measurements and respective grainsize distributions. List after station: Kahule Khola 230 samples, Bhotekoshi 282, Sunkoshi 189, and Sapta Koshi 219 samples.

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