Environment

Subduction Earthquakes or Tandava!

In the Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva is believed to be the creator and the destroyer both. His Rudra Tandav is supposed to be a dance of destruction. So powerful was the Lord, it is said, that he could annihilate not only the Earth, but the universe and even the death itself.

The stories of Lord Shiva rocking the earth could not be a mere figment of imagination. They were probably the expression of our ancestors to describe the might of the powerful destructive earthquakes! Scientific expression was not developed those days, instead, every action of the nature was considered to be the work of the God. Hence, no wonder the past earthquakes too were taken as His doing and described as Rudra (angry) Tandav (dance).

Now known as the subduction earthquakes, by the seismologists are no less powerful than Shiva’s Tandav and are equally potent to destroy anything within their reach.

Remember the earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 in Japan! So powerful was the undersea earthquake that it caused a tsunami that upset even the safety programmes of meticulous Japanese nuclear scientists and the nuclear power house at Fukushima Daichi was rendered vulnerable. Likewise, there have been a number of such large, greater than 9Mw Earthquakes in the past too.

In the last century, two earthquakes, viz. Chile (1960), and Alaska (1964) had magnitudes 9.5 and 9.2 respectively. Both the earthquakes had created transoceanic Tsunamis which travelled across the Pacific Ocean, causing destruction wherever it hit the shore.

What makes these earthquakes so powerful?

It is the location of such earthquakes. They occur at the subduction zones of the convergent plate boundaries. Huge amounts of energy are suddenly released at such zones. Since these occur at very shallow depths they rupture large areas and ultimately lead to a tsunami thus multiplying the extent of damage. The total length of the global subduction plate boundaries is more than 40,000 kilometers. Out of this any one contiguous several hundred kilometer length is sufficient enough to create an earthquake event of Mw ± 9.

History is full of even more powerful earthquakes. For example, the one that created the Lisbon tsunami of 1755; is said to be an earthquake of 8.5 to 9Mw and it killed around 100,000 people.

History of large subduction zone earthquakes during the past century suggests that some subduction zones are more active than the others, says Kusala Rajendran of Centre for earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She says that while Cascadia, southern Chile and the Marianas appear to be relatively less active compared to Java, Sumatra, Japan, South America’ the Aleutians and the Kurile trenches. But factors controlling this difference of activity are not yet clear.

Our knowledge of the past great earthquakes that is the earthquake events above Mw9 is scanty and is based on historical records, which are often not factual. The period between two great earthquakes is usually of the order of 500 years or more. And our scientific instrumental record is only a century old. Another problem that hinders scientific prediction of subduction earthquakes is unexpected event like 2004 Sumatra earthquake. There was no historical precedent of earthquake along Sumatra-Andaman Plate boundary. Therefore it is pertinent to understand the behavior of the subduction zones of plates better.

The greatest problem with earthquakes is that they come unannounced. Even while these lines were being written a massive earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck Iran-Baluchistan border and it shook large parts of North India, particularly Delhi and the National Capital region. Is that earthquake a precursor of a larger one, or was it the last shake, before the plates hand in balance for a few hundred years more is difficult to predict.

Unfortunate part is that our earthquake resistant designs of large structures are based on the knowledge which still requires lots of improvement. This applies more to densely populated areas like the Capital of India, which is prone to earthquakes and has a history of damaging earthquakes. Now with high rise buildings vying with each other, competing to touch the sky are very much vulnerable, as we never know when and where the Lord may decide to hold his next Rudra Tandav!

Image (c) Gettyimages.com
 

18-Apr-2013

More by :  V. K. Joshi (Bijji)

Top | Environment

Views: 3580      Comments: 2



Comment Thanks for the comments rdshaby. There can be no two opinions about what you said.

V.K. Joshi
18-Apr-2013 23:25 PM

Comment The intuition expressed by myth, in this case Hindu myth, of divine power manifesting itself in earthly events, bespeaks the reality: that events in nature are ultimately only explicable as caused by divine power. Science may reconcile earthquakes as the outcome of natural forces: science observes, and draws its conclusions and makes its predictions from the evidence. It does not follow things back to the true origin, because this is ultimately inexplicable. What, for example, caused the 'Big Bang'? Sure, it says it will know one day - from observation vindicating its prediction. Ultimately though, it cannot rely on observation to provide the ultimate cause because something has to explain that if it is observed. In denying a divine origin, science resigns itself to saying, 'Anything, anything, but God!' – or else, it would turn into religion overnight! If individual scientists believe in God it is on the level of myth. It is here that myth comes into its own and provides the cause: a divine power that is ultimately not caused: in myth, even Hindu myth, we have an insight into the primal cause of the creation event in all its aspects.

However, all is not lost for science, I believe, as its method assumes identification, and identity is an absolute concept which proves a context where such concepts are realised, a spirit dimension. This will lead to the acknowledgement of the absolute element of identity as explicable only in terms of a divine spirit origin. The exact mechanics of the process itself being a form of science of the spirit in creation: where things and events are perceived as affected in terms of identity: something that science assumes anyway, but without realising it.

rdashby
18-Apr-2013 21:12 PM




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