India: Micro quakes have prevented large-scale disastrous temblors
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Apr 2023
Micro tremors have been helping release tectonic stress and protecting India from devastating events according to Indian seismologists. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, 59% of India’s land mass is prone to earthquakes.
India’s National Centre for Seismology ministry of Earth sciences said the impact of a large-scale earthquake can also be reduced if people and institutions strictly comply with the bylaws and codes to build resilient structures.
The triple junction on India’s western side near the border with Pakistan is continuously releasing stress due to the occurrence of micro-level earthquakes. There are a few earthquakes of magnitude four and five as well.
A triple junction is a point where three tectonic plates meet and interact. These are geologically-important areas and can be sites of significant seismic and volcanic activity. The movement of the plates can cause significant build-up of stress and strain in the Earth’s crust that is eventually released in the form of earthquakes.
Triple junctions are rigid and compact and withstand a lot of stress. If it breaks, the entire stress is released, causing a lot of damage.
There are two triple junctions in Turkiye. One of them is where the Arabian Plate, the African Plate and the Anatolian Plate meet. The breaking of this junction led to the massive earthquake in February this year that devastated Turkiye and Syria, leaving more than 25,000 dead.
India is divided into four seismic zones based on the potential for earthquake activity in each region.
Zone V is seismically the most active region, while Zone II is the least. Around 11% of the country’s area fall in Zone V, 18% in Zone IV and 30% in Zone III and the remaining in Zone II. The zones are used to guide building codes and construction practices. M