Earthquake prediction: A case study of an area in the Peninsular India

Abstract

It is only within the past one decade that the prediction of   earthquakes has come to occupy a position within the science of seismology. Until then, this field lay more with astrology and soothsaying. Within this short span or time, countries, which are often afflicted with this scourge, have made considerable progress in evolving norms to forecast the on-coming of an earthquake. The methodology and determination of reliable parameters to predict an earthquake is still under development.

India is an industrially developing country needs a programme  to make a beginning towards prediction of earthquakes. Though northern India is a seismically active region, the southern part of the Peninsula till recently was considered seismically stable and free from earthquakes. This has been proved an erroneous assumption.

There are a number of areas which are seismically active in the south. One such area is associated with the N.W.--S.E. trending, 60 km long lineament along which the ldamalayar river flows. There are evidences to indicate that the lineament, since proved to be a 35 m wide shear zone is likely to be active.

The paper while describing the evidences for such a seismic activity, discusses the feasibility of monitoring the earthquake shocks along the zone.