LAHORE: A radius of three to five thousands kilometres around Pakistan is fully packed with elastic energy set to erupt at time after a lapse of some 80 years of 1935 earthquake of Quetta, said sources.
They said the countries right from the Middle East to Central Asian States to South Asia are at risk so far as eruption of a high magnitude elastic energy after attaining maturity over the last 80 years.
It may be noted that the sizes of earthquakes are measured using well-defined, measurable quantities such as seismic moment and released or transformed elastic energy. According to sources in the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the ideal situation to avoid a massive destruction is keep releasing elastic energy in low magnitude from time to time. They have mentioned the 2005 earthquake in Muzaffarbad area and another one in Mirpur in the recent past as an example to avoid large scale destruction out of earthquake.
The sources said since the depth of Tuesday night earthquake was some 190 kilometres down the earth in the Hindu Kush mountain range with little population in and around the epicentre, therefore, no large scale deaths have occurred and buildings in cities remained safe in major cities of Pakistan. They further pointed out that the duration of the earthquake was long therefore, the vertical waves jolted the earth in countries situated around Afghanistan. They said the situation could have been different had the epicentre was of shallow depth with heavy density of population around it like Turkey and Syria.
It may be noted that the initial rumours of existence of epicentre at a distance of 70 kilometres from Gujrat had panicked the seismic experts. However, they took a sigh of relief when it was confirmed that the epicentre was located in the area of Hindu Kush mountain range.
Sources said the latest earthquake could not play havoc at large scale simple due to the depth of 190 kilometres under the earth. They have pointed out that every earthquake crossing the magnitude of five is considered as dangerous in seismology. It is interesting to note that no earthquake waves could travel in sandy lands, therefore, no major threat exists for the South Punjab region, they added.
It may be noted that Business Recorder has already reproved that China is set to provide financial assistance in setting up a seismic centre in Quetta. The centre would calculate underground energy, earthquake waves arising out of it and tsunami monitoring, they added.
According to the sources, the centre would monitor underground activities in the Arabian Sea and the monitoring stations would also be installed within and outside the sea along the coastal areas.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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