11 earthquakes in J&K and Ladakh in a week

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, June 18

Eleven earthquakes in J&K and Ladakh in the past one week have caused panic among residents even as a study by the Geology Department of University of Jammu suggests that the region is vulnerable and activities beneath the Earth’s crust have been going on for a long time. Six earthquakes hit parts of J&K and Ladakh on June 17 and 18. The series of earthquake of magnitude of mostly above 4 on the Richter scale started on June 13 when Doda district of Jammu division was hit by an earthquake of 5.4 magnitude.

Can’t blame power projects

Many believe tremors are due to hydropower projects. A lot of data is needed to come to this conclusion. Yudhbir Singh, Assistant Professor, Geology, University of Jammu

On Sunday, Leh in Ladakh witnessed 4.1-magnitude tremor at 2.16 am. Leh was hit by another quake (4.3 magnitude) at around 8.28 am as per the National Center for Seismology. Earthquake of 4.1 magnitude hit Doda at around 3.50 am on Sunday.

Doda and Kishtwar have a known history of earthquakes. Many believe that intense construction activities for power projects on the Chenab river, which runs through these districts, have triggered the earthquakes, but the University of Jammu states the earthquakes are not reservoir-induced.

Yudhbir Singh, Assistant Professor, Geology, University of Jammu, said, “Many believe the earthquakes are due to the hydropower projects in the region. We have found that there are not more than 16 reservoir-induced earthquakes across the globe so far. There is a requirement of a lot of data to come to this conclusion that earthquakes in Doda and Kishtwar are due to hydropower projects.”

Singh, who is leading the study, said there had been over 500 earthquakes in past 12 years in Doda and Kishtwar region. “The reason for these quakes is the fact that the areas lie in seismic zone four which is highly vulnerable for such quakes. There are some parts in the erstwhile state of J&K which fall in seismic zone five,” he told The Tribune.

Before 2005, there were not enough tools to detect seismic activities. The expert said that while stopping or predicting an earthquake was not possible, “we only need to be prepared for such quakes”.