Meghalaya: GSI conducts session on recent earthquakes in Northeast India

By Daiaphira Kharsati

SHILLONG:

Deputy Director-General of Geological Survey of India (GSI) Dr Sandip Kumar Som said that GSI has established permanent GPS network throughout the country with several stations in Northeastern states to understand the strain localisation for future earthquakes. 

Speaking to media persons during an online session on the causes of the recent earthquakes in the Northeast, he said that an earthquake cannot be predicted but people should be mentally prepared.

He added that people should adhere to building norms instead of building a high-rise.

“I want to make it very clear that it is not possible to predict an earthquake, unlike landslide. Landslide is a surficial process and can be constrained, but an earthquake is a deep inside process and difficult to predict. However, scientists are trying to solve this problem worldwide. GSI has established a permanent GPS network throughout the country with several stations in Northeastern states to understand strain localisation for future earthquakes. Work towards that is under progress,” Som said.

Sonitpur earthquake

He responded to an interesting question as to why after 33 years Sonitpur is the epicentre of this huge earthquake (6.4 on Richter Scale).

He said Sonitpur lies within a triangular area bounded by E-W trending Atherkhet fault, NW-SE trending Kopilli fault and one N-S trending lineament making the area tectonically complex. Both the Atherkhet and Kopilli are active.

Speaking on the reason that water was oozing out of the fault at Sonitpur and other adjoining affected areas, he said, “The reason for that is the severe liquefaction from unconsolidated substratum that the water from the faults oozes out.”

Other than the Atherkhet and Kopilli faults in the Sonitpur region there are four other faults-the Siang fracture, Yemla fault, Namula Thrust and Canyon Thrust which are spread over the North-East region and are active along with Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), Main Central Thrust (MCT) and other subsidiary faults.

“The Northeastern region of India is demarcated as Seismic zone V, which indicates zone with high earthquake vulnerability. The Indian plate is moving towards the Northeast direction colliding with the Eurasian plate in the Himalayan region. This oblique collision has developed a complex tectonic framework in the Northeastern region with several active faults, which gives rise to earthquakes.”

He added that plates are moving continuously at certain speeds. “Stress and strain accumulates as per the local tectonic/fault environments and ultimately releases when crosses the yield point.”

(Edited by Shankar Kumar Turha)

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