2005 Kashmir earthquake
Also called: Muzaffarabad earthquake · Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Interior of the Earth"
Meaning
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake struck on 8 October 2005. It had a magnitude of 7.6, and magnitude is a measure of how much energy a quake releases. Its centre was near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian plate keeps pushing north-northeast into the Eurasian plate, but the two plates are locked together. Stress builds up along the Himalayan arc until the rocks suddenly slip. Over 80,000 people died. The quake shows that the whole Himalayan belt can be hit by deadly earthquakes.
Example
On the Indian side, the quake damaged the Aman Setu bridge at Uri in the Jhelum valley of Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmir Valley lies in India's "very high" earthquake damage-risk zone, which is Zone V on the BIS seismic map.
Don't confuse with
- Bhuj earthquake 2001: it struck Kachchh in Gujarat on 26 January 2001, with a magnitude of about 7.7 and about 20,000 deaths. It happened far from the Himalaya, while the 2005 quake came from the Himalayan plate collision.
- Latur earthquake 1993: it struck Killari in Maharashtra, in the "stable" Peninsula, and is linked to the Bhima fault. It was not caused by the Himalayan plate collision.
Related concepts
- Himalayan earthquakes
- Seismic zones of India
- Bhima fault
- Reservoir-induced earthquake
- Latur earthquake 1993
- Bhuj earthquake 2001