Nepal Earthquake: God-sent or Man-made?
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This quake was the largest one in the region in the past 8 decades; the last big quake that took place was back in 1934. So far over 3000 people are reported to have died across, Nepal, India, China (Tibet) and Bangladesh and the toll is expected to rise as more bodies are pulled out of the debris, all the people that are presumed to be missing are accounted for.
Earthquakes are major cataclysmic events that occur because of tectonic plates pushing against each other. Across the fault lines, where these plates clash, energy keeps building up overtime and is dissipated in the form of an earthquake at regular intervals of times.
These fault lines lie across the world, and the quake caused in Nepal was along the 1,400-mile Indo-Eurasian fault line, with the India plate is pushing its way up against the Eurasian plate at a rate of about 5 centimetres, or approx 2 inches, a year. This is why the whole Himalayan plateau is prone to earthquake, and this is what caused the latest devastation in Nepal.
Events like earthquake are rarer and unpredictable, and have always confounded the scientific community. While we can’t pinpoint the triggers, we do know the science of what and how it is caused. And one thing we are sure of, the reasons are too big and to multifarious to be pinpointed at one direction.
Even in the ancient times, the unscientific man knew that earthquakes were different from the rest of the events (which could be blamed to certain deity or other), hence even the myths were all so very different from the one about serpents changing loads to giant on whose head the earth rests goes on to turn his head.
Yet, there is one theory or linkage that is much debated, but cannot be truly debunked, namely the connection between earthquakes and climate change. Scientists across the globe are researching to find if there is a direct (or a discrete) connection between the two.
While the connection is tenuous at the moment,the scientific community is now looking at various clues if climate-change related events could be offsetting cataclysms like earthquake or Tsunamis.
Bill McGuire, who is currently Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at UCL, examined the link between climate-change and earthquakes and published a paper (or rather a book on the same).
In
“Waking the Giant: How a changing climate triggers earthquakes,
tsunamis, and volcanoes“, he pored over the geological history of the
planet and reached a conclusion that events like earthquakes and
tsunamis are on the rise.
The
central idea is that melting ice-caps and rising sea-levels
redistribute weight over continental fault-lines (like the one in Nepal)
and thereby influence disasters like earthquakes or volcanoes.Glacier_Mass_Balance_MapBut as for climate change affecting earthquakes, there are tentative hints of links. Changing ice caps and sea-level redistribute weight over fault lines, which could potentially have an influence on earthquake occurrences.
No studies quantify the relationship to a high level of detail, so recent earthquakes should not be linked with climate change. 20,000 years ago, with global temperatures some 6 degrees milder and ice blankets all across Europe and North America, the earth presented a very different picture.
The sea-level since that time has risen by some 130 metres and growing rapidly. Could this be one of the factors (mind you, not the only one) that influences such events?
While, there will be many who would readily debunk the very discussion as hearsay or bunkum, the fact remains that catastrophic events like earthquakes and tsunamis are indeed influenced by the man’s hand. Take the case of the 1967 earthquake in Koynanagar (Maharashtra) which was induced by the construction of the Koyna dam.
Earthquakes and tremors caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on the Earth’s crust are termed as induced seismicity. According to researchers, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which caused approximately 68,000 deaths, was caused by the construction and filling of the Zipingpu Dam that could have triggered the earthquake.
Many scientists have warned that construction of dams in such seismic zones like the Tehri Dam or even the Three Gorges Dam will result in huge earthquakes in the days to come.
While the jury is still not out on the fact that anthropogenic climate-change has influence on natural disasters, the fact remains that the damages caused by such events are exacerbated by the work of man. For instance, the floods of Uttarakhand in 2013 caused much havoc largely due to manner in which settlements were made across the length of the rivers flowing through the state.
Similarly, the floods in Kashmir are much severe since the natural flow of water has been constricted by unplanned and often illegal construction.
And while the link of man to causation is disputed, there is no dispute on the link to destruction caused in the wake. It is pretty obvious that the destruction caused by such events is often directly related to mankind’s increasing footprint. The last nepal earthquakemajor earthquake to strike Nepal in 1934 (8.2 magnitude) was some 3.5 times more devastating than the current one (7.8).
Yet, the current has caused more damage (relatively) simply because of the hap-hazard urbanisation that has happened over the ages .
ARTICLE BY:INDIA TV
POSTED BY : VIPUL KOUL
EDITED BY: ASHOK KOUL
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