Ignorance or indifference, be what we are faced with mounting earthquake risk in Uttarakhand and but for immediate and serious corrective measures we are to face disastrous consequences.
Search Results for: earthquake
Small Tremors & Earthquake Risk
Small tremors, though frequent don’t reduce earthquake risk in an area as the energy released by them is relatively insignificant. Get to better understand the implications of small magnitude earthquakes.
Threat of Earthquakes in the Himalayan Region: A Call to Action for Resilience
It is a harsh reality that being overwhelmed routinely by landslides and flash floods, the Himalayan states are ignoring earthquake safety, largely due to particularly long quiescence after the previous earthquake. In view of due date of next major earthquake drawing close it is recommended that the Himalayan states gear up their preparedness to reduce the threat of earthquakes by adopting and undertaking strategies for (i) mass awareness, (ii) dos and don’t campaigns, (iii) stringent building bye laws, (iv) incentives and punitive measures for compliance, (v) vulnerability assessment and retrofitting, (vi) risk transfer and low premiums, (vii) mandatory construction standards for loans, and (viii) stringent safety measures in lifeline buildings.
Earthquake early warning – An illusion
After a series of earthquakes in the recent past in western Nepal and Pithoragarh, the earthquake early warning (EEW) system operated by USDMA in Uttarakhand has been the focus of most seismic safety related debates. Obsessed with the glitter and fancy of early warning most disaster risk reduction (DRR) enthusiasts often tend to consider it the ultimate […]
Explosives and earthquake threat
Restricting explosive use in construction works in Himalayas is welcome and this is to help in effectively managing landslides in Himalayas. Explosive use however does not have any impact on earthquake risk.
Frequent earthquakes & lessons for EEW system
In the morning hours of Saturday September 11, 2021 around 0558 hrs IST, the area around Pipalkoti and Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand experienced violent ground shaking. Traumatised by the tremor and suspecting damage, people came out of their houses and remained outdoors for quite some time, apprehending a bigger one to follow. As is expected, […]
1803 Garhwal Earthquake: Implications for western UP and NCR
The seismic tremors Severe ground shaking was felt over northern and eastern India from Punjab to Calcutta in the early hours of September 1, 1803. But for some sketchy written accounts of the damage incurred at certain places and that too with reference to some prominent structures, there exist no means of assessing the destruction […]
Earthquakes warning from Uttarakhand – implications for UP and NCR
The inaugural Inaugurating the only functional regional earthquake early warning (EEW) system of the nation together with Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert, a mobile application for accessing the earthquake warnings and other earthquake risk reduction related information, at Uttarakhand Secretariat in Dehradun in the forenoon of August 4, 2021, the Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reiterated the […]
Earthquake safety tradition in the Himalayas
Experimenting with building design and construction precepts the people living in earthquake prone Himalayan region developed a construction algorithm with five distinct principles that ensured safety of structures during earthquake incidences. Ongoing tectonic movements, ensuing subduction of the Indian Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate, and their consequent collision resulted in the evolution of the Himalayan […]
Earthquake misconceptions you need to shed
If the earth moves beneath our feet, is it because the Seshanaga shrugged? Seven headed serpent king associated with Lord Vishnu, Seshanaga is generally believed by Hindus to hold the earth on his hoods, and earthquakes are considered to be caused as Seshanaga’s adjusts the massive weight on its hoods. Not many might believe in […]