Three pre-shocks reduced impact of Nov 9 pre-dawn earthquake: Official
New Delhi (PTI): Three pre-shocks spread over 10 days ahead of the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on November 9 helped avert a bigger tragedy in the Himalayan region bordering Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, a senior official said on Thursday.
Three earthquakes a 4.1 magnitude temblor at 9.11 am on October 30 and two on November 8 of 3.5 magnitude and 4.9 magnitude helped release a lot of accumulated stress in the seismologically-active Himalayan region, O P Mishra, Director of the National Centre for Seismology told PTI.
He said all the earthquakes had their epicentre about 90 km east-southeast of Pithoragarh in Nepal between the South Almora Thrust and the North Almora Thrust and the shockwaves travelled towards Delhi along the Moradabad fault.
"The biggest safety point of Himalayan region is that smaller quakes keep on happening and there is leakage of stress," said Mishra, who carried out a study of the recent earthquakes in the region.
He said the release of stress by the three pre-shocks also ensured that the after-shocks of the 6.3 magnitude temblor did not cause much damage.
"Also, the after-shocks were fewer in number. Had the three pre-shocks not happened, there could have been a series of aftershocks," Mishra said.
The 6.3 magnitude earthquake was followed by four aftershocks two on November 9 at 3:15 am (3.6 magnitude) and at 6:27 am (4.3 magnitude). Another 3.6 magnitude quake occurred in the region at 4:58 am on November 10.
The 5.4 magnitude earthquake at 7:57 pm on November 12 was also an aftershock of the 6.3 magnitude temblor of November 9 and its impact was also felt in the national capital region.
Four major earthquakes were recorded in the Himalayan region over the past 150 years, including the tremors in Shillong in 1897, in Kangra in 1905, in Bihar-Nepal in 1934 and in Assam in 1950.
An earthquake occurred in Uttarkashi in 1991 followed by one in Chamoli in 1999 and one in Nepal in 2015.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
