Recent report of National Centre for Seismology (NCS) has identified 29 Indian cities and towns, including Delhi and capitals of nine states fall under “severe” to “very severe” seismic zones.
The places in the report fall under seismic zones IV and V have combined population of 3 crore. The places are:
- Delhi
- Patna (Bihar)
- Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir)
- Kohima (Nagaland)
- Puducherry
- Guwahati (Assam)
- Gangtok (Sikkim)
- Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)
- Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
- Imphal (Manipur)
- Chandigarh
Seismic microzonation is the process of subdividing a region into smaller areas having different potential for hazardous earthquake effects.
♦ Zone V covers the areas with the highest risks zone.
It includes the entire northeastern region, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, parts of north Bihar and the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
♦ Zone IV is the High Damage Risk Zone.
Parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Sikkim, northern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and a small part of Maharashtra fall under Zone IV.
Chandigarh, Ambala, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Roorkee fall under zones IV and V.
Earthquake Observatories In India
At present, there are 84 earthquake observatories in India. The Ministry of Earth Sciences plan to add 31 new by March, 2018. This is being done to detect and record earthquake parameters more accurately and identify possible precursors of tremors.
The NCS has also carried out microzonation of cities like Delhi and Kolkata to study the possible impact of earthquake in these mega cities.
Source: Hindustan Times
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