Bhuj Earthquake India
Bhuj Earthquake India – Aerial View
Gujarat : Disaster on a day of celebration : 51st Republic Day on January 26, 2001
7.9 on the Richter scale.
8.46 AM January 26th 2001
20,800 dead
Basic Facts
- Earthquake: 8:46am on January 26, 2001
- Epicenter: Near Bhuj in Gujarat, India
- Magnitude: 7.9 on the Richter Scale
Geologic Setting
- Indian Plate Sub ducting beneath Eurasian Plate
- Continental Drift
- Convergent Boundary
Specifics of 2001 Quake
Compression Stress between region’s faults
Depth: 16km
Probable Fault: Kachchh Mainland
Fault Type: Reverse Dip-Slip (Thrust Fault)
Location
The earthquake’s epicentre was 20km from Bhuj. A city with a population of 140,000 in 2001. The city is in the region known as the Kutch region. The effects of the earthquake were also felt on the north side of the Pakistan border, in Pakistan 18 people were killed.
Tectonic systems
The earthquake was caused at the convergent plate boundary between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate boundary. These pushed together and caused the earthquake. However as Bhuj is in an intraplate zone, the earthquake was not expected, this is one of the reasons so many buildings were destroyed – because people did not build to earthquake resistant standards in an area earthquakes were not thought to occur. In addition the Gujarat earthquake is an excellent example of liquefaction, causing buildings to ‘sink’ into the ground which gains a consistency of a liquid due to the frequency of the earthquake.
Background
India : Vulnerability to earthquakes
- 56% of the total area of the Indian Republic is vulnerable to seismic activity.
- 12% of the area comes under Zone V (A&N Islands, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, N.E.States, Uttaranchal)
- 18% area in Zone IV (Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Punjab, Sikkim, Uttaranchal, W. Bengal)
- 26% area in Zone III (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, W. Bengal)
- Gujarat: an advanced state on the west coast of India.
- On 26 January 2001, an earthquake struck the Kutch district of Gujarat at 8.46 am.
- Epicentre 20 km North East of Bhuj, the headquarter of Kutch.
- The Indian Meteorological Department estimated the intensity of the earthquake at 6.9 Richter. According to the US Geological Survey, the intensity of the quake was 7.7 Richter.
- The quake was the worst in India in the last 180 years.
What earthquakes do
- Casualties: loss of life and injury.
- Loss of housing.
- Damage to infrastructure.
- Disruption of transport and communications.
- Panic
- Looting.
- Breakdown of social order.
- Loss of industrial output.
- Loss of business.
- Disruption of marketing systems
