Report on

3rd Annual Convention

On

‘Advances in Earthquake Science’ &

‘Workshop on Seismic Microzonation’ Date: 4th – 6th January, 2014 Venue: Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar

Organized By: Supported By:

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INDEX

Table of Contents Background ................................................................................................................................................... 3

The event ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

Day 1 – 4th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 4

Plenary Session: ........................................................................................................................................ 5

List of speakers: .................................................................................................................................... 5

Dr. Walter Mooney: US.Geo.Soc ........................................................................................................... 6

Dr. P.K. Mishra: Director General, GIDM, Gujarat ................................................................................ 6

Prof. Harsh K. Gupta: Member, NDMA ................................................................................................. 6

Prof. B.K. Rastogi: Director General, Institute of Seismological Research ............................................ 6

Prof. Antonella Peresan: University of Trieste, Italy ............................................................................. 7

Honoring of eminent personalities: ........................................................................................................... 7

Session 1: Earthquake Precursors and Prediction Studies ..................................................................... 7

Session 2: Lithospheric Structure ........................................................................................................... 7

Day 2 – 5th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 8

Session 3: Seismic Hazard Assessment and Engineering Seismology ....................................................... 8

Session 4: Real Time Seismology and Seismicity Studies .......................................................................... 8

Session 5: Neotectonics: Tectonic Geomorphology, Paleoseismology, Seismotectonics .......................... 9

Seismic Microzonation Workshop: ............................................................................................................... 9

Session 1: Seismic Hazard Assessment ...................................................................................................... 9

Day 3 – 7th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 9

Session 2: Experiences from Microzonation Studies in India .................................................................... 9

Session 3: Methodologies for Seismic Microzonation and Implication for Policy .................................... 9

Way forward: .............................................................................................................................................. 10

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Background Earthquakes have been causing massive damages from historic times in India. Earthquakes do

not directly kill people, but earthquake induced effects such as Ground Shaking, Ground displacement, Landslide, Liquefaction, Site effects, Flooding, Fire and Tsunami are responsible for killing people and causing massive damages.

With the current scientific knowledge, it is not possible to forecast the occurrence of earthquake with reasonable degree of accuracy in terms of size, time and space. (The only way to reduce earthquake hazards is to design our buildings and infrastructures to withstand these earthquakes.) Therefore it is necessary to take alternative preventive measures to reduce the loss of life and property due to large earthquakes. As per seismic zoning of the country, over 59% of India’s land area is under threat of moderate to severe seismic hazard.

One only possible way to reduce the intensity of calamity, if not to prevent it totally, is to classify terrenes in order of progressively changing intensity of seismicity highlighting the more vulnerable areas prone to damage by earthquakes. For this analysis, zoning of country into various parts (Macro Scale) and further in smaller regions (Micro-Scale) is necessary.

On a macro scale, the country is classified into various seismic zones based on already experienced and expected severity of earthquake shaking and history of seismicity.

Microzonation is a process that involves incorporation of geologic, seismologic and geotechnical concerns into economically, sociologically and politically justifiable and defensible land use planning for earthquake effects so that architects and engineers can site and design structures that will be less susceptible to damage during major earthquakes. Microzonation is subdivision of region into zones that have relatively similar exposure to various earthquake related effects.

The event The Institute of Seismological Research (ISR, Gandhinagar) along with The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM, Gandhinagar) and Indian Society of Earthquake Science (ISES) had organized 3rd Annual Convention on “Advances in Earthquake Science” followed by a workshop on “Seismic Microzonation”. Most eminent scientists and leading researchers from India and abroad graced this event.

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Day 1 – 4th January, 2014

Inaugural Session

List of Dignitaries

Name Organization

Smt. Anandiben Patel Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of Gujarat

Chief Guest

Mr. S.J. Haider, IAS Secretory, Dept. of Science and Tech

Mr. Sanjay Prasad, IAS Secretory, Labor and employment

Dr. Ranjeet Bannerjee CEO, GSDMA

Dr. Harsh K. Gupta Member, NDMA

Guest of Honour

Prof. R.K. Verma ISM Dhanbad

Dr. Walter Mooney US.Geo.Soc

Dr. Harinarayan Director, GERMI

Dr. P.K. Banik Director General, PDPU

Dr. B.K. Rastogi Director General, ISR

Dr. P.K. Mishra, IAS (Retd.) Director General, GIDM

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The event was inaugurated by Smt. Anandiben Patel, Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of Gujarat.

Various other eminent scientists, professors and students were also present.

The Government of Gujarat conducted this event as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 summit and the

event was supported by Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) and Department of

Science and Technology (DST), Government of Gujarat.

Smt. Anandiben Patel: Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of

Gujarat

Chief Guest

Smt. Anandiben Patel inaugurated the Convention with

the release of an abstract volume of the convention on

‘Advances in Earthquake Science'. She congratulated

the organizers for putting up such a grand event. She

also wished good luck to all the participants, that at the

end of the conference they can come up with

constructive conclusions for the benefit of the mankind.

Plenary Session:

List of speakers:

Name Organization

Dr. Walter Mooney US.Geo.Soc

Dr. P.K. Mishra Director General, GIDM, Gandhinagar

Prof. Harsh K. Gupta NDMA, New Delhi

Prof. B.K. Rastogi Director General, ISR, Gandhinagar

Prof. Antonella Peresan University of Trieste, Italy

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Dr. Walter Mooney: US.Geo.Soc Topic: Need of the present Session and Workshop

Dr. Walter Mooney with the help of a video presentation, very effectively highlighted the need of the

sessions on advances in earthquake sciences being conducted. He also gave impetus to the need of

Microzonation studies. In his talk, he explained how the western countries like USA can take learning

points from India, which has in its past experienced various earthquakes and related hazards.

Dr. P.K. Mishra: Director General, GIDM, Gujarat Topic: Lessons of the Bhuj Earthquake 2001

Dr. P.K. Mishra in his lecture talked about the Bhuj Earthquake of 2001, which because of its

geographical spread and severity caused problems and constraints in the immediate aftermath. He

presented the scenario after the 2001 earthquake, of how a massive rescue and relief operation was

undertaken with mobilization of human and material resources on an unprecedented scale.

He also focused on the formation of ‘Gujarat Disaster Management Act’ and how it laid a strong

foundation for the Disaster Management Act-2005.

Prof. Harsh K. Gupta: Member, NDMA Topic: Earthquake Scenarios for Himalayan Region

Prof. Gupta gave a talk on how active the Himalayan region has been in the past, lessons learnt and way

forwards. He deliberated to create a more earthquake resilient society.

He also came up with an innovative idea of ‘State Disaster Response Force’ in the lines of ‘NDRF’.

He also complimented the Government of Gujarat for setting up state of the art institutions like GIDM

and ISR.

Prof. B.K. Rastogi: Director General, Institute of Seismological Research Topic: Earthquake Hazard Assessment at Different Scales by ISR

Prof. Rastogi in his talk focused on various studies by ISR related to seismic hazards. At international

level, he talked about ‘Global Earthquake Model’ that ISR is working on with Italy and Germany amongst

others. He also told about ISR help in ‘Probabilistic Seismic Hazard’ Map of India for BIS.

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Prof. Antonella Peresan: University of Trieste, Italy Topic: Neo-deterministic definition of seismic and tsunami hazard scenarios by exploiting advanced e-

infrastructures

Prof. Peresan illustrated the preliminary results from a joint

cooperation project, aimed at definition of seismic and

tsunami hazard scenarios in Gujarat region by means of Indo-

European e-infrastructures, shifting the focus from classical

probabilistic to innovative physically based approaches. She

gave impetus to the overall goal of the collaboration to

provide the community with advanced information for

seismic and tsunami risk mitigation.

Honoring of eminent personalities: 1. Dr. Hari Narain (Posthumously), Former Director, NGRI

2. Prof. R.K. Verma (Retd.), ISM, Dhanbad

Session 1: Earthquake Precursors and Prediction Studies Chairman: Prof. B.R. Arora, Division of Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi

Co-Chairman: Dr. P.N.S. Roy, ISM Dhanbad

No. of presentations: 25

Recognizing that earthquake precursory research holds key to earthquake prediction, research for

precursors and their documentation has continued in different parts of the globe. In this session,

various papers were presented by different national and international researchers. All the papers

were based on their research on earthquake prediction studies. They focused on mathematical

tools to isolate precursory signature in real time, establishing their space time relation to

earthquake cycle and highlighting strategies for integrating multi sensor data.

Session 2: Lithospheric Structure Chairman: Dr. M. Ravi Kumar, CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad

Co- Chairman: Dr. Sumer Chopra, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi

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No. of Presentations: 9

Understanding of the Earth as a dynamic system has primarily evolved owing to development of

new inclusive tools to probe in earth’s interior from crust to core, tremendous strides in acquisition

of high quality data from dense observational networks coupled with enhanced computational

power. Session focused on current knowledge of the deep structure, evolution and dynamics of

stable continental interiors and actively deforming plate boundary regions in diverse tectonic

settings by bringing together researchers from a wide variety of disciplines from active and passive

seismology, GPS geodesy, geodynamics, geochemistry, magnetotellurics and mineral physics. The

session centered on evolution of the Indian shield and its plate boundary regions like the Himalaya,

Burma and Andaman arc regions.

Day 2 – 5th January, 2014

Session 3: Seismic Hazard Assessment and Engineering Seismology Chairman: Dr. Imtiyaz A. Pravez, CSIR-CMMACS, Bengalore

Co-chairman: Dr. P. Anbazhagan, IISC, Bengalore

No. of Presentations: 25

This session addressed seismologists, engineers and stake-holders with an aim to contribute in

bridging modern interdisciplinary research and end-users, who have to cope with the problems of

seismic risk management and earthquake disaster preparedness. Various advanced tools for

seismic hazard assessment at a local scale were talked about like ‘Ground Motion Modelling’,

‘Source characterization and Simulation’, ‘Seismic Assessment of Bridges’ etc.

Session 4: Real Time Seismology and Seismicity Studies Chairman: Prof. J R Kayal, ISR

Co- Chairman: Prof. Shamita Das, Univ. of Oxford, U.K.

No. of Presentations: 13

Aim of real-time seismology is to collect and analyze seismological data rapidly through a seismic

crisis and utilize them for developing information on hazard, potential damage of large events,

actual damage, and aftershock risk, with the aim of mitigating earthquake impact on human society.

Before the main shock, the focus is on providing indications for an impending event by time

dependent assessment of hazard and risk. The session explored the state of the art of this evolving

technology and highlighted its application options in Indian context. Also risks associated with

aftershocks were assessed.

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Session 5: Neotectonics: Tectonic Geomorphology, Paleoseismology,

Seismotectonics Chairman: Prof. V.C. Thakur, WIHG, Dehradun

Co-Chairman: Prof. S.K. Tandon, Delhi University, Delhi

No. of Presentations: 26

In this session, different papers were presented on problems of recent tectonic movements

occurred in upper part of Tertiary (Neogene) and in the Quaternary, which played an essential role

in the origin of the contemporary topography.

Seismic Microzonation Workshop: This workshop primarily had discussions on assessing natural hazard and consequent risk due to

earthquakes quantitatively. Salient topics of discussion were:

Probabilistic vs. Deterministic methods of seismic hazard estimation

Experiences/ sharing of learning of Microzonation studies by different agencies and by different

Cities/States/ Countries

Current methodologies of seismic Microzonation being practiced in India/ abroad

Session 1: Seismic Hazard Assessment Chairman: Prof. C.V.R. Murthy, IIT Jodhpur

Co-Chairman: Prof. A. Peresan, Univ. of Trieste, Italy

No. of Presentations: 5 followed by a panel discussion

Day 3 – 7th January, 2014

Session 2: Experiences from Microzonation Studies in India Chairman: Prof. D.K. Paul, IIT Roorkee

No. of Presentations: 4 followed by a panel discussion

Session 3: Methodologies for Seismic Microzonation and Implication for Policy Chairman: Dr. R. Bannerjee, GSDMA, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

No. of Presentations: 4 followed by a panel discussion

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Way forward: Setting up ‘Centre for Rare Events’ at IIT-Gandhinagar: A Centre of Excellence to make

engineers more aware on seismological hazards and advancements in Seismic research

Creation of a ‘think tank forum’ comprising of seismologists, geologists and engineers to devise more methodologies to bridge gap amongst the three

To form a forum to discuss on various perspectives of Microzonation

Microzonation should be taken into consideration seriously as it is much more effective, relevant and friendly in the days to come