The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001, at 08:46 AM, and coincided with the 51st celebration of India's Repu

The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001, at 08:46 AM, and coincided with the 51st celebration of India's Republic Day. The location of the epicentre was Bhuj (23.6 N 69.8 E) Gujarat, India. With a moment magnitude (Mw) of between 7.6 and 8.1, the quake killed more than 20,000 people and injured another 167,000 and destroyed nearly 400,000 homes throughout Gujarat and parts of eastern Pakistan.[3]The earthquake is considered an intraplate earthquake because it occurred at a distance from any plate boundary, where the theory of plate tectonics says most earthquakes of this size happen. Because of this, this area was not well prepared for an earthquake of such size. The event was the result of stored energy in a collision margin, which describes when two continental plates collide and begin to rub, creating pressure, until the energy is released in an quake. It registered as 7.9 on the richter scale.

EffectsBecause of its size and location, the quake was very destructive in terms of lives lost and damage to property. As many as 26,000 people were reported dead, and 167,000 injured. All the deaths occurred in India's western state of Gujarat, near the Pakistan border. The final death toll of Kutch was 12,220. Bhuj, situated only 20 kilometres (14 miles) from the epicentre, was the most devastated town. Overall, over a million structures were damaged or destroyed, including many historic buildings and tourist attractions.[4]The quake destroyed around 90% of the homes in Bhuj, eight schools, and flattened two hospitals. It partly destroyed the historic Swaminarayan temple in the city. Considerable damage also occurred in Bhachau. It also destroyed 4km of road in Bhuj. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat's commercial capital and a city of 4.6 million population, as many as 50 multi storied buildings collapsed and several hundred people were killed. Total property damage was estimated at $5.5 billion and rising. The quake destroyed 75% of Kutch District, and over 80% of usable food and water supplies. This left Bhuj devastated.

The district collector Anil Mukim oversaw the early delivery of aid and equipment to affected villages but then called for further aid deliveries to cease as they encouraged a "relief mentality" which would delay a return to normal life.[5]Also the shock waves spread 700km. 21 districts were affected and 600 000 people left homeless....

2001 Gujarat earthquake

DateJanuary 26, 2001(2001-01-26)

Magnitude7.9 Mw[1]

Depth16kilometres (10mi)

Epicenter location232631N 701836E / 23.442N 70.310E / 23.442; 70.310

Countries/regions affectedIndia

CasualtiesApproximately 19,727 dead, 166,001 injured [2]

In the history of natural calamities, the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake was the most devastating in India. The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake took place at a distance of 20 kilometers from Bhuj, Gujarat, and was scaled as 6.9 on the Richter scale.

The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake took place on the 26th January when the Republic Day celebration was going on. It was reported that around 19,727 people were killed and more than 166,000 thousand people were injured. Beside these, the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake rendered 600,00 people homeless, with 348,000 houses destroyed and nearly 844,000 houses damaged.

Talking about other resources, about 20,000 cattle were killed. It was estimated that the government had to bear a loss of about 1.3 billion dollars; other losses indicate losses as high as 5 billion dollars.

The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake, as the reports say, was an intra-plate earthquake which took place due to the collision of the tectonics plates. The worst effected areas of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake were:

Kutch:

Bhuj

Anjar

Bhachau

Rapar

Gandhidam

Ahmedabad:

Ahmedabad city

Rajkot:

Morvi

Jamnagar:

Jodiya

Dhrol

EarthquakePerhaps the Earthquake is the most fearful natural phenomenon in the human life. It is more so, because it is unpredictable and arrives without notice or without announcing it's vigor and strength. Scientists are constantly in search of this unknown. The major events of the earthquakes from the human viewpoint are realized on review of some major catastrophes. Minute observations and records at least have been able to pin point the focus or the epicenter of these earthquakes in the historical past. These studies could reveal two great seismic belts in the entire globe. This article in fact, is just a browsing in the memory in response to the curiosity of Internet hunters. Therefore, it should start with the very basic question-What Is An Earthquake?Apparently the answer is simple - numerous tremors, both powerful and weak are the results of disturbances within the body of the earth itself logically are called Earthquake.Why & How Earthquakes Happen? Reasons could be many; pinpointing is always after the event. They may be caused by various activities at the earth's surface such as ebb and the flow of the tides, the rush of traffic in the city streets, the tumbling of streams over high falls, magma tic outbursts from within the interior of the earth or explosion of high power nuclear or atomic bomb and so and so forth.

We should have first hand information about the two great seismic belts in the globe. What Are They? Most of the catastrophic events of earthquakes are associated with any of these two belts. Seismically active region in these two belts are categorized as follows1. Western Coasts of North and South America, the Aleutian Islands and the island groups along the eastern Coast of Asia such as Japan and the Philippines and thus borders the Pacific Ocean on the east, north and the west.2. It includes the Mediterranean, the Alps, the Caucasus and the Himalayas and continues into the East Indies, where it intersects the first belt. Uttaranchal- Assam and Andaman- Nicobar island chains fall within the second belt and thus face frequent earthquakes of devastating nature. In a simpler way it can be narrated that the earth as such consists of different rock layers of decreasing densities right from the center towards it's surface. Deep inside at the center, the earth is hot and molten. Because of Earth's rotation and other energy factors different shells or the rock layers constantly move or slid past each other. As a result, the different continental mass fragments of lesser densities float and move overriding the denser rock layers or the plates, either towards or away from each other. This is happening since long geological past. This movement acts like a conveyor belt and during the journey the plates meet each other or gets obstacle by other denser plate and the rock layers start descending when we call a subduction Zone. Naturally in the adjacent sides of the subduction zone the rock layers get up heaved resulting folding, thrusting and faulting. The second belt in parts of India i.e. Andaman- Great Nicobar- Java- Sumatra zone is actually is a sub ducting zone for which the long island chains have emerged. This zone, in fact, is very dynamic and active giving rise deep to intermediate earthquake foci. The sub ducting force in this part, is directed from west to east while the same in Uttaranchal - Assam region is from south to north. Entire this zone is susceptible to tremors of higher magnitude.Significantly, most of the earthquakes in this belt are associated with volcanic activities. The violent outbursts of Kraktao in 1883 were accompanied by severe shocks and about 35,000 people died instantly and the whole village was displaced beneath the ocean bottom.With intermittent volcanic activity and earth tremors, this region recently, on 26th December 2004 was subjected to catastrophic earthquake of 9 magnitudes in Richter scale, which again recurred on 28th March 2005. The previous one led tsunami causing severe damage to both life and property. The other parts of India, was used to be considered as earthquake resistant areas or the shield areas. Oldest rocks of more than 3000 m years form the foundations of the continental mass compare to much younger rock sequence in the seismically active belt just described. Therefore earthquakes causing loss of life & property around Latur or Koyna raised a serious concern among the geoscientists. One important aspect in this regard should always be kept in mind that the tremors had hit mostly the coastal points excepting a few areas in the hinterland.Recently, a light earthquake (m.l=2.8) struck the coastal Kunnakulam region in the northern Kerala on 20.12.2006 at 19:19 hours local time. The adjoining districts of Mallapuram, Pallakad and Trissur also experienced the same tremors. People became panicky particularly when the famous festival of Trissur Pooram was at the peak.Why It Happened?It is known that the west Coast of India, as a whole, had been affected by numerous fault sets in the recent geological past around 80,000 to 1 million years before. Kathiawar coast with milliolite limestone was raised high from beneath the seabed. These faults are sharp N-S or E-W trending. The overall E-W trending Palghat Gap is well known. It lies across the Western Ghats in Kerala forming a major break in the continuity of the hills and connects Western Coastal Plain with the rest of the southern States. This landform or the Pass is bounded by steeply rising Nilgiri hills to the North and Anai Malai- Palni hills to the south. In the offshore about 90 km west of Ponnani there lies a topographic high known as Ponnani mount. It emerges at the continental slope adjoining shelf edge. ENE-WSW striking broad valley with steep northern wall has been observed about 25 km SE of the Ponnani Mount in the offshore. This valley, about 8 km wide fall in the same line with the Palghat Gap present in the NE of the area.The other studies like magnetic observations confirm that the Palghat Gap is a faulted graben and continues beyond the land and towards the seabed in the offshore. Similar fault planes criss-cross this domain of Western Coast. Although these fault planes are inactive at present, it can reactivate to any extraneous force of considerable magnitude like impounding of sea waves or tides or even high power explosion & rush of heavy traffics. Incidentally, the area around Palghat Gap forms a weak zone with fault traces and contacts of younger rock formations like Vakrala sandstone with the oldest gneissic rock of more than 3000 m.years.Who knows the famous festival of Trissur Pooram accompanying huge explosion of fire works and thousands of processions might aggravate the weak planes and causes tremors of human concern.