State’s geographical location plays favourable role
Residents of Madhavadhara come out of their apartment complexes following the tremors in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. (Photo: DC)
Visakhapatnam: While a deadly earthquake shook the entire north India and killed hundreds in Nepal, most of the southern states of the country remained mostly unaffected except for a few cases of mild tremors. Experts in the city said it is highly unlikely that any such incident would happen in Andhra Pradesh or any other neighbouring states due to the location advantage.
Dr. K.S.R. Murthy, former scientist in-charge of National institute of Oceanography (NIO) said the earthquake in Nepal occurred due to tectonic plate shifts. India is situated on the Indo-tectonic plate, which is constantly moving north-east at the rate of 3cm per year. On the north of Indo plate, the Asia plate is situated and whenever these two plates collide, earthquakes takes place.
"Himalaya is situated on the Indo-Asia tectonic plate coalition zone, thus making it extremely prone to earthquakes," Dr Murthy said adding that it is due to the collision between the two plates which resulted in the formation of the Himalayas.
Naturally, the southern part of the country, situated on a very stable zone on Indo plate, is relatively much safer than the northern zone, he added. Agreeing with Mr Murthy, former professor of Andhra University's geology department G. Krishna Rao said Andhra Pradesh is not prone to earthquakes caused by shift of tectonic plates, but another type is very common. He said, due to the massive production of natural gas and oil from the Godavari basin, effective stress is created in the gas reservoirs, which leads to subsidence of the strata.
Mr Rao added that due to deep digging, the rock structure within the earth gets disturbed and then rearrange with gravity. As a result, places like Vijaywada and Guntur often experience moderate earthquakes up to an intensity of 4 on Richter scale".
However, this would be highly unlikely if this phenomenon cause major quake in AP, he said adding that detailed studies should be taken up to understand the seismic activity in the gas fields along east coast and stability of the delta lands.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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