50 new seismic stations for quake analysis in offing

Gandhinagar-based Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) has planned to set up 50 new seismic stations in Gujarat at a cost of around Rs five crore to enhance their capacity to analyse possible risk of earthquake in the state.

These new seismic stations will have two major components–Strong Motion Accelerograph (SMA) and another is Broadband Seismometer (BBS), said senior scientist of ISR Dr Santosh Kumar.

At present, there are 60 permanent stations having such sensors in Gujarat as part of the earthquake early warning system. Out of these 60 stations, 45 are directly connected with ISR while remaining are offline.

As many as 13,800 people had died and 1,67,000 were injured when a powerful earthquake had struck about 250 km west of Ahmedabad at a depth of 25 kilometre on January 26, 2001.

According to Kumar, the 50 new stations will collect and analyse various noises, seismic waves and signals coming from the crust of the earth, which will help the scientists to locate active fault-lines which are responsible for earthquakes.

"ISR has planned to set up 50 new seismic stations to study what is happening below the surface of Gujarat. The main purpose of this project is to find out what is going on in deep mantle or deep crust by analysing various noises coming out from the earth," said Kumar.

"Each station will have one SMA and one BBS. These equipments are very sensitive and state-of-the-art. The total cost of our project is around Rs five crore. This project is more about estimating long term seismic hazard," said Kumar.