Earthquake hits pakistan 2011

Breaking News! A strong earthquake measuring 7.2 has hit south-western Pakistan, in a desert area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, the US Geological Survey says. The quake struck at 0123 on Wednesday (2023 GMT on Tuesday), some 55 km (34 miles) west of Dalbandin in Pakistan, at a depth of 84km (52 miles). It was located several hundred kilometres from the Pakistani city of Quetta and the city of Zahedan, Iran. The 7.6-magnitude Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 killed 73000 people. In its initial reports the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake happened at a depth of just 10km (6.2 miles). Earthquakes at such a shallow depth have the potential to cause major destruction and loss of life. However, a later bulletin from the USGS revised the depth of the quake to 84km (52 miles) underground, potentially limiting the effects. No immediate details of any damage were available, but reports said the quake was felt in neighbouring Pakistani provinces. TV reports said the quake was felt as far away as Karachi and outside the quake zone in Dubai in the Gulf. Frequent quakes The area hit by the recent earthquake is sparsely populated and is located in a seismically active zone. The nearest town, Dalbandin, 55km east of the epicentre, is thought to have a population of below 20000 people. However, major population centres are relatively close to the epicentre. The Iranian city of Zahedan, some 310km (195 miles) west of the quake, is home to some 570000 people. The historic …

The huge earthquake that hit Sumatra occurred at a deep, unexpected location, illustrating the dangerously complex geological mosaic in this area, a seismologist told AFP on Thursday. The 7.6 magnitude quake struck on Wednesday 80 kilometers (50 miles) beneath the sea, 45 kilometers northwest of the city of Padang, according to US Geological Survey (USGS) data. The fault line where this happened runs parallel to Sumatra and is called the Sunda Trench. It marks a “subduction” zone, where one plate of Earth’s crust rides on top of the other. To the west is the Australia plate, which is moving northeast at about five centimetres (two inches) a year). The Australia plate is being forced under, or subducted, by the Sunda plate, which lies to the east. Scientists had long feared a major earthquake would occur on the part of the trench near Padang. They considered it vulnerable to a so-called quake “cascade” that began with the notorious 9.1 quake of December 26, 2004 that unleashed the Indian Ocean tsunami. “Cascade” events can occur in long, badly-stressed faults. The stress of a large earthquake causes the next section of a fault to weaken and then rupture, in a domino-like effect. But Sandy Steacy, a professor at the Environmental Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, said Wednesday’s quake was not part of this chain reaction. “The event yesterday was kind of strange, it wasn’t what we would have expected,” she said. “It appears if the …
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