Information message about the earthquake in the West of India, Gujarat state on January 26, 2001

     On January 26, 2001 at 06:16 Moscow time (03:16 GMT) the strong and destructive earthquake has happened in the western Indian state Gujarat near the town Bhuj. According to ITAR-TASS message this earthquake was felt all around India territory and covered also territories of neighboring Pakistan and Nepal. From mass media messages not less than 20,000 people are dead by January 29, 2001 and the number of injured exceeds 30,000.
     Parameters of the earthquake have been determined in the Alert Service (AS) of Information Processing Center (IPC) of Geophysical Survey of RAS in Obninsk with station data obtained from digital and analog seismic stations of Russia, countries of CIS and from abroad. Alert message on this earthquake has been delivered in 60 min after registration to the Ministry of Emergency of the Russian Federation (EMERCOM).
     Preliminary processing has been done with data from 17 stations, accurate processing - with data 30 stations.
     Figures 1-2 present records from digital stations obtained by IPC in a close to real time mode.

Figure 1
 

Figure 2
 
     IPC GS RAS also has obtained information with parameters of this event from some seismological centers, these data are given in table 1:
Note: Preliminary and accurate parameters of the earthquake determined in IPC GS RAS are presented in Table 1.
Table 1
NN Time in origin h-min-s (GMT) Lat degr. Lon degr. Depth km N s/st Ms/ N mb/ N I0 calc GAP Center
1 03-16-42.80 23 70  33  17  8.10/87.10/89.5-10 IPC GS RAS (preliminary)
2 03-16-41.4 23 70  33  30  8.0/127.0/99.5-10 IPC GS RAS (accurate)
3 03-16-39.4 23 70  23  116  8.0-8.1 6.2-7.3   CSEM
4 03-16-41.3 23 70  25  32  7.9    NEIC
  • IPC GS RAS - Informational Processing Center, Geophysical Survey, Russian Academy of Sciences
  • CSEM - European - Mediterranean seismological center
  • NEIC - National Earthquakes Information Center of US Geological Service
    • Epicenter
         Hypocenter location of this earthquake is shown on map (fig. 3) composed by National Information Center of the Utited States Geological Service (USGS) and uploaded from WEB site of this service.

    Figure 3
    Aftershock
          THe earthquake has been accompanied with numerous aftershocks, strongest of which had magnitude М=5.8 and was registered on January 28, 2001 at 01:02AM GMT. Data on this aftershock are given in section of "Early Alert Service" of CEME GS RAS server with numbers 156.
    Macroseismic manifestations
         Hypocenter of this earthquake was located in the western Indian state Gujarat. From ITAR-TASS information most destructions are observed in towns Bhuj, Ahmedabad and Bhachau, which is situated in 70 km to the east from Bhuj. By January 29 more than 20,000 people had died as a result of this natural disaster (15,000 people are residents of Bhuj), the number of injured exceeds 30,000, it is supposed that from 5,000 to 7,000 people are still under the debris. THis earthquake has been felt in many other towns of India, including biggest cities Bombay and Deli, as well as in the number of towns of Pakistan (Karachi, Peshawar) and Nepal. Specialists EMERCOM from Russia, Austria, Switzerland and other countries have started rescue operations.
    Historical records
         From data of Indian Meteorological Agency presented on site this region of Earthquake January 26, 2001 belongs to one of most seismic active zones of India - zone of neo tectonic cavity KUTCH of platform region being part of complex area from Mezozoic age. Most significant seismic events of India and its close neighboring territories are given in table 2, information was uploaded from Information server of Indian Meteorological Agency.
    Table 2
    LIST OF SOME SIGNIFICANT EARTHQUAKES IN INDIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD

    DATEEPICENTRELOCATIONMAGNITUDE
    Lat (Deg N)Long (Deg E)
    1819 JUN 1623.668.6KUTCH,GUJARAT8.0
    1869 JAN 102593NEAR CACHAR, ASSAM 7.5
    1885 MAY 3034.174.6SOPOR, J&K7.0
    1897 JUN 122691 SHILLONGPLATEAU8.7
    1905 APR 04 32.3 76.3KANGRA, H.P 8.0
    1918 JUL 08 24.591.0SRIMANGAL, ASSAM7.6
    1930 JUL 0225.890.2DHUBRI, ASSAM7.1
    1934 JAN 1526.686.8BIHAR-NEPALBORDER8.3
    1941 JUN 2612.492.5ANDAMAN ISLANDS8.1
    1943 OCT 2326.894.0ASSAM7.2
    1950 AUG 1528.596.7ARUNACHAL PRADESH-CHINA BORDER8.5
    1956 JUL 2123.370.0ANJAR, GUJARAT7.0
    1967 DEC 1017.3773.75KOYNA, MAHARASHTRA6.5
    1975 JAN 1932.3878.49KINNAUR, HP6.2
    1988 AUG 0625.1395.15MANIPUR-MYANMAR BORDER6.6
    1988 AUG 2126.7286.63BIHAR-NEPAL BORDER6.4
    1991 OCT 2030.7578.86UTTARKASHI, UP HILLS6.6
    1993 SEP 3018.0776.62LATUR-OSMANABAD, MAHARASHTRA6.3
    1997 MAY 2223.0880.06JABALPUR,MP6.0
    1999 MAR 2930.4179.42CHAMOLI DIST, UP6.8

    It is seen from the table that similar magnitude event was registered in this area of India on June 16, 1819. (from NEIC data 1500 – 2000 people had died then). Latest significant earthquakes have been noticed here in 1956. From data of seismological bulletin of CEME GS RAS and inormation from international seismological centers in Newberry, NEIC (NEIS) USA and Chineese agency (Institute of Geophysics, State Seismological Bureau, Beijing, China) РЕК no significant seimic activities with magnitudes more than Ms=4.0 have been noticed here after 1956. Only two earthquakes in 1982 had magnitudes Мs=4.0-4.2 and were felt in the State of Gujarat, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar areas.

    Figure 4
    Focal mechanism and seismic moment of the earthquake
         Parameters of focal mechanism were determined from CMT method by Harvard Geophysical Laboratory, USA (HRV solution), and are shown in table 4 and on figure 5.
    Table 2
    Axes of main strengths Nodal planes Center
    T P N NP1 NP2
    Pl Azm Pl Azm Pl Azm Stk Dp Slip Stk Dp Slip
    612682993 22655050297 54127HARVARD
  • HARVARD - Harvard Geophysical Center (USA)

    • Figure 5


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