Ground below Uttarakhand quietly building energy for a mega earthquake, reveals study. A new study has found that the fault beneath the Uttarakhand Himalayas is strongly locked. It is accumulating tectonic strain, with stored energy equivalent to that released by a magnitude 8.1 megathrust earthquake roughly every century. Notably, the entire state of Uttarakhand is situated in Seismic Zone 6, the highest and most vulnerable category for earthquake risk in India.