Expert asks people of quake-prone NE to be on guard

SHILLONG, February 18 (UNI): At least 393 earthquakes measuring between two and seven on the Richter scale have rocked parts of Northeast, besides border areas of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan since 1980. But more than 80 percent of those tremors could hardly be felt in large parts of the region. According to the Central Seismological Observatory Center here, out of these tremors, 22 quakes measuring between 5 and 6.6 on the Richter could have shaken large parts of the region. Most of them had their epicenters on Indo-Bangladesh border near Silchar, Indo-Myanmar border near Mizoram and Manipur and Indo-China border near Arunachal Pradesh. Seismological officials told UNI here that though Northeast was a highly active seismic zone, yet it would be premature to forecast that a major quake was imminent within the next five years or any specific time frame as predicted by some. No science can predict earthquake. Knowing that the Northeast is a high risk quake-prone zone, NGOs and the government should educate people to tackle quake-related disasters, the officials said. Of the 22 quakes with moderate intensity that had occurred in the Northeast, the ones measuring 6.6 on Richter Scale (RS) with its epicenter near Manipur-Myanmar border in 1988 and another one with the same intensity on the same border in 1994 were recorded highest during the past 20 years. They were followed by 6.2 (RS) on April 15, 1992 again near Myanmar 6.1 (RS) on January 12, 1989 near Indo-Bangladesh border and 6.0 (RS) on November 19, 1980 near Bhutan. The other major records were - 5.9 (RS) near Myanmar (April 25, 1981), 5.6 (RS) near Bangladesh bordering Silchar (January 24, 1982), 5.6 (RS) near Myanmar bordering Manipur (January 3, 1983), 5.6 (RS) near Indo-Bangladesh border, Silchar (December 30, 1984), 5.5 (RS) near Mizoram (Dec 23, 1985), 5.4 (RS) near Myanmar on May 10 on the same year, 5.9 (RS) near Myanmar (Aug 24, 1987), 5.4 (RS) near Myanmar (January 10, 19901), 5.4 (RS) near Manipur side (December 12, 199 1), 5.0 (RS) near Arunachal-Bhutan border (Dec 13, 1993), 5.9 (RS) near Arunachal Pradesh-China border (February 1995), 5.5 (RS) near Arunachal Pradesh-China border (June 9, 1996), 5.8 (RS) near Myanmar (April 14, 1997), 5.2 (RS) near Bhutan border (July 8. 1998), 5.2 (RS) near Silchar-Bangladesh border (April 6, 1999) and 5.0 (RS) near Myanmar-Mizoram-Manipur border (October II, 2000). Besides the Central Seismological Observatory Center here which was established in 1952, other such centres established in this region were at Agartala, Imphal, Tura and Lekhapani. Regarding the total 393 felt quakes in the Northeast, the data collected showed that 16 of them occurred in 1980, 17 (1981), 17 (1982), 20 (1983), 15 (1984), 20(1985), 14 (1986), 12 (1987), 18 (1988), 23 (1989), 13 (1990), 18 (1991), 24 (1992), 13 (1993), 36 (1994), 25 (1995), 17 (1996), 25 (1997), 17 (1998), 14 (1999), 17 (2000) and only two this year so far.