Earthquake Prone Areas

Earthquake Prone Areas

Earthquake - prone areas of the county have been identified on the basis of scientific inputs relating to seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic setup of the region. Based on these inputs, Bureau of Indian Standards [IS 1893 (Part I):2002], has grouped the country into four seismic zones, viz. Zone-II, -III, -IV and –V. Of these, Zone V is seismically the most active region, while zone II is the least. Broadly, Zone - V comprises entire northeastern India, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, part of North Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Zone - IV covers remaining parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Sikkim, Northern Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west coast and Rajasthan. Zone – III comprises Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep islands, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. Zone - II covers remaining parts of country.

               Earth System Science Organization- India Meteorological Department (ESSO-IMD)   has installed a number of Seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) stations across major faults to monitor the seismicity and crustal movement of the Indian subcontinent. ESSO-IMD operates a national network of seismographs to monitor the earthquake activity in the country on 24 X 7 bases. Making use of earthquake records, the magnitude and other source parameters are estimated in an automated mode.

          Under the Koyna Deep Borehole programme, studies have been initiated to carry out scientific investigations for deep borehole drilling in the Koyna-Warna region. The investigations include, Seismological, Geophysical (seismic, gravity, magnetic), LIDAR, geomorphology and structural geological studies, apart from a few exploratory boreholes.

            ESSO of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has established a National Centre for Seismology (NCS) as an independent organization by separating of seismology activities from IMD. The broad objectives of the Center are as follows: 

·         Provide earthquake (M:3.0 and above) related information to all user agencies in shortest possible time.

·         Provide earthquake hazard and risk related products of specific region, required by various agencies for institutionalizing various preventive measures for design and construction of earthquake resistant structures, land use planning and for enacting building bye-laws towards minimizing damage to property and loss of lives due to earthquakes.

·         Carry out research in pure and applied seismology and earthquake precursory phenomena, earthquake processes and modeling.