Multiple 'MEGA EARTHQUAKES' could strike ANY DAY

by Jon Austin:

A SERIES of magnitude 8 earthquakes could be triggered at anytime from TODAY according to Government disaster experts.

For once, it is not doomsday prophesiers giving false warnings, as disaster management experts of the Union home ministry have warned there could be huge quakes rippling through the Himalayas in north and north east India at any time.

The Indian National Institute of Disaster Management NIDM said recent earthquakes that hit the region, including a 6.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Manipur on January 4, caused tectonic plates to re-rupture, increasing the likelihood of more and bigger tremors.

Even major city Delhi could be affected.

It is outside the seismic Zone V, but in the lesser Zone IV

NIDM director Santosh Kumar said: "The entire Himalayan region is considered to be vulnerable to high intensity earthquakes of a magnitude exceeding 8.0 on the Richter Scale, and in a relatively short span of about 50 years, four such major earthquakes have occurred in the region."

The warning is made in an NIDM disaster risk profile .

Poor building control across India could leave heavily populated areas devastated, it warned.

The risk profile said: "India has highly populous cities and the constructions in these cities are predominantly not earthquake resistant. Regulatory mechanisms are weak, thus any earthquake striking in one of these cities would turn into a major disaster."

The separate National Disaster Management Authority NDMA blames rapid urbanisation without regulation for the increase in earthquake risk in the area.

Studies have warned of a "big one" looming in the region after the 7.8 magnitude quake last April did not released all seismic energy beneath the Himalayan thrust fault.

A study by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research warns of a major earthquake in Uttarakhand, due to an expansion of the seismic gap in the area.

The study said: "The approximately 700-km-long central seismic gap is the most prominent segment of the Himalayan front not to have ruptured in a major earthquake during the last 200-500 years.

"This prolonged seismic quiescence has led to the proposition that this region, with a population of more than 10 million, is overdue for a great earthquake."