Experts share technology,data to heal quake jolts

The experts from the two countries also said the workshop on intraplate earthquakes — earthquakes that take place outside known tectonic plate areas such as where two landmasses meet — was relevant because both countries experience them — in Gujarat and central Indian regions and the North-Eastern and central United States.

Intraplate earthquakes are less predictable,they said,because unlike their interplate cousins they do not necessarily follow regular time-periods.

“The important question that we hope to address is ‘how do you encourage populations to be aware of earthquakes in places where earthquakes are only occasional or rare? How do you motivate them to build stronger and sturdier buildings and houses,for example?’” said Prof John E Ebel,who teaches earth science at Boston college.

Rufus Catchings,a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey,said,“This research will come to us and it will go to the world.”

“Since short-term predictions of earthquakes is not easy,we are now looking at probabilities and in case of vital installations like nuclear power plants,worst case scenarios,so we can prepare ourselves,” said Susan E Hough,another geophysicist with the same agency.

Some experts like M Ravi Kumar from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI),Hyderabad,also said the workshop helped them put “conflicting hypotheses” in seismology side by side and gave them the chance to test them against each other.

The experts also discussed about how reservoirs of water can trigger earthquakes. According to the seismologists,more than 100 moderate earthquakes (between 5 and 6 on the Richter scale) have been triggered by reservoirs across the world,while four have exceeded magnitude 6 — in China (Xinfengjiang dam),Zambia (Kariba dam),Greece (Kremasta dam) and India (Konya dam) — causing deaths and large-scale damage.