Earthquake prone South-Asia
Nearly 20,000 dead in South Asian quake. This is very sad. On a beautiful sunday morning, this is not the kind of news i wanted to see.Eventhough i do not exactly like Pakistan or maybe just their Indian team and politicians, a toll of 20,000 innocent people is a terrible and disturbing news. And what’s more petrifying is that South Asia is Prone to more Earthquakes in the future. Here are some excerpts from this article about some of the damage that earthquakes have caused in the past.
The area along India’s northern border in disputed Kashmir is by far the hottest spot in that country, said A.K. Shukla, director of India’s Earthquake Risk Evaluation Center. He said the latest quake, unfortunately, will not be the last and may not be the largest to come.”It’s not a question of surprise, because that area is a highly seismic one,” he said. “It’s not surprising at all.”
Saturday’s quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir. At least 22 aftershocks followed within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.
In 1935, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake was recorded in Quetta, India, killing 50,000. In 1974, just north of the recent quake’s epicenter, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake occurred, generating 5,800 casualties.
Will the same type of collision that created the Himalayas millions of years ago be the demise of beautiful Asia and my beautiful sub-continent ? I pray for that not to happen.