Comment on “Morphotectonic analysis of Aripal basin in the North-Western Himalayas (India): An evaluation of tectonics derived from geomorphic indices [Quat. Int. 568 (2020) 103–115]”

Abstract

The active tectonics of the Kashmir basin is an interesting research problem because it involves a region that is located away from the Himalayan frontal portions where most of the tectonic activity is absorbed on the Main Frontal Thrust system. Therefore, any study on the active tectonics of the region would increase our understanding on how interior faults form, activate or reactive. However, several problematic and controversial research articles have been published over the years on the active tectonics of the Kashmir basin. These have questioned the quality of research, which has been raised by Shah in several of his commentary papers. The work presented below is a discussion on the recently published article by Bhat et a. (2020) where the authors argue to have identified a new active fault in Aripal basin, Kashmir, by using the geomorphic indices, morphometric parameters, and detailed fieldwork. However, the fault does not exist, and the field details are conflicting and controversial. Therefore, I suggest that the paper should be removed and authors should be allowed to correct the problems that I have raised below, and resubmit when they are ready with the data.