DEADLY TREMORS

An earthquake view in Ziarat Pakistan 29th Oct, 2008

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DEADLY TREMORS
A catastrophe seeks effective management.

Written by Naeem Baig.

It was around 2.15 AM in the morning on 28th Feb, 1997. The silent bowl valley of the
Rocky Mountains called Quetta was in her deep sleep. I had just arrived home after a late
night shift in office. Before I could change my cloths, I felt myself thirsty. I opened my
kitchen refrigerator and poured water into the glass. I felt my hand trembling while
drinking my glass of water. Some of the water fell outside. For a friction of second I
thought, it is my dizziness scalping me but a roar of grinding some thing beneath my foot
realized me that it’s an earthquake. Abruptly ground slipped from my feet and a strong
motion violently threw me on the sidewall. Noise occurred by my hit on the wall crashing
my glass in the hand, mixed with the scream of my wife, waken the children in another
room. A swift wicked horror embedded us all within seconds. Everything started rattling.
My daughter aged 6 screamed horribly “father hold me”. She was crying. I ran into her
room and fell on her to cover with my body holding hand of another daughter crying
under the bed. It was a frightened action yet it gave them touch of my affection. I looked
upwards on the ceiling. It seemed me to collapse within seconds. Tremor was extremely
horrifying and still going on and lasted for 48 seconds as it reported later in the news.
The jolt measured at 6.8 Richter scale but saved the valley of Quetta as it traveled to the
Harnai (A village near to Ziarat District) mountains scraping a small mud hill and
triggered land sliding resulted a village of 50 people vanish from the face of the earth.
It was my life’s first earthquake experience. I recall that a senior bureaucrat and friend of
mine later told me that geologists team from United Kingdom visited Quetta later in 1997
and studied the causes of occurrence of this earthquake and what made it save the valley
despite a jolt of 6.8. The study report never published.
This all refreshed in my memory when I heard a tremor of 6.4 Richter scale has struck the
historic hill-town valley of Quetta and Ziarat before dawn early Wednesday 29th October,
2008 leaving behind 250 dead bodies and thousands of injured survivors screaming in
panic into the streets with its aftershocks. A major jolt again struck in the same evening
on a little lesser scale. Total death tolls have been reported so far over 250 inhabitants of
Ziarat valley and its surrounding villages Kawas, Zindra and Khanozai a village in
remote mountainous region bordering Afghanistan. The dead includes 29 members of the
same family. Most of the victims were including women and children in outlying
villages as mud houses destroyed and the tremor triggered landslides of rocks and
boulders while people slept in their beds. More than 15000 people have become
homeless. In Quetta witnesses said people fled screaming from their homes. Many people
remained outside in the streets wrapped up against early morning chill. First tremor shook
them awake from their deep sleep shortly before 5 AM. Afterwards a larger shockwave,
10 minutes later, struck the earth within the radius of more than 150 kilometers from its
epicenter located some 70 kilometers north of Quetta and 185 kilometers from the
southeast of the Afghan city of Kandahar. The United States geological survey said the
quake struck at 5.09 AM measured 6.2, later revising the magnitude to 6.4. The Pakistan
metrological office put it 6.5. Aftershocks were still felt through out in the morning in the

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region. While an aerial assessment of damage was underway. The destruction is heavy,
people need immediate help. Most of the causalities and damage struck at the depth of 10
kilometers from two villages built on steep ground on the outskirts of the town of Ziarat.
It is a historical hill resort famed for its unique juniper forests. It receives visitors from all
over Pakistan in the summer that come to see the holiday home of the country’s founder
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It is not for the first time that earthquake had
spread fright in the Quetta masses. The historic 1935 earthquake in which the ancient
Quetta was almost completely transformed into the new Quetta, there always remained
fears in the public that this catastrophe can any time occur in the terrain. Quetta has
witnessed many earthquakes after the independence of Pakistan. More or less, it again
has brought extreme destruction and frustration. Being located on the quake-sensitive
zone, the city is always in danger of this natural calamity.
When we see the paradigmatic history of the earthquakes, the largest recorded earthquake
in the world was of a magnitude of 9.5 in Chile in May, 1960. The biggest recorded
earthquake in the United States was a magnitude of 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound,
Alaska on Good Friday March 28, 1964. Pakistan is also prone to violent seismic
upheavals, its great earthquake called as Kashmir earthquake was the deadliest with a
magnitude of 7.6 in the northern part of Pakistan in Oct, 2005 killing about 80000 people
and leaving 3.5 million people homeless. In 1935 a massive quake killed around 30000
people in Quetta which at the time was part of British-ruled India. The statistics from the
history of earthquakes on the globe in the past 2000 years death tolls are shown in the
diagram.

6-6.9 7-7.9 8-9.9 -

526-999 2 350,000
1000-1499 3 390,000
1500-1599 2 880,000
1600-1699 - 9 151,350
1700-1799 - 14 242,000
1800-1899 - - 61 122,985+
1900-1949 63 81 24 902,461
1950-1999 130 106 14 647,274
1980-1989 980 101 4 58,880
1990-1999 1339 147 6 114,646
2000-2008 1248 111 12 463,321
Courtesy. History of World Earthquakes.

It is revealed that in the recent past eight years total death tolls has arrived to 463,321 in
the world, out of which if taken only recent two seismic jolts in Pakistan the death tolls
reach to, with a very careful estimation, around 82,000 people. A percentage shows
around 18 %. Do not we think it is an alarming statistics?
Before we go for the answer we would like to discuss some more facts about earthquakes.
The earth’s crust is divided into several major plates, some 50 miles thick, which moves
slowly and continuously over the earth’s interior. Most earthquakes as the result of the
slowly accumulating pressure that cause the ground to slip abruptly along a geological

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fault plane on or near a plate boundary. The resulting waves of vibration within the earth
create ground motion at the surface that vibrates in a heavy complex manner. The point
where the fault first slips is the ‘focus’ or the ‘hypocenter’ of the earthquake. A theoretical
point on the earth’s surface directly above the focus is the ‘epicenter’ of the earthquake.
The satellite image of epicenter and radius maps of the October, 2008 Quetta jolt would
certainly help you to understand its mechanism.

Courtesy BBC News online.

Courtesy BBC News online.

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So when an abrupt shift of a rock in the fault causes shaking of the ground, it creates
vibration, some time violent and on the earth’s surface that follows a release of energy in
the earth’s crust. It all starts with plate tectonics. The plate tectonics theory is a starting
point for understanding the forces within the earth that causes the earthquakes.
According to GHSAP data, Pakistan lies in a region with moderate to high seismic
hazards; the greatest hazard is in the North West Frontier Province, in the vicinity of
Quetta and along the border with Iran. Historically the earthquakes in the 7.0 range have
been experienced in Baluchistan and along the border with Afghanistan & India. While
Karachi lies close to a major fault line, it is situated on or close to four minor faults. The
first is called the Allah Bund fault and it passes through the coastal town of Shah Bundar,
the area around Pakistan Steel Mills and runs through eastern parts of the city ending near
Cape Monz. Another fault lies in the Rann of Kutch near Sindh’s southeastern border
with India. The third is called the Pubb fault which lies near the Mekran coast west of the
city while a fourth is located in Dadu district on the northern boundary of Karachi. The
scientists now have a fairly good understanding of how the plates move and how such
movements relate to earthquake activity. Most movement occurs along narrow zones
between plates.
An earthquake is one of the most terrifying phenomenons that nature can dish up. It’s
probably not some thing you think about first when earthquakes are mentioned but
knowing what causes these shakers can help you understand your surroundings. You
wake in the darkness, unsure about what has disturbed you. Strangely the clock on your
bedside begins to rattle about, as if it has a will of its own. You become aware of the
strange roaring outside. The rattling grows and strengthens. Suddenly the earth moves,
bucking like a wild animal. Your room heaves, glasses crashed in the kitchen, painting
falls from the walls. It’s an earthquake, a terrifying syndrome blur your bravo psychology
for years.

There are several measures to cope up with the upheaval of earthquakes. It strikes
suddenly, violently and without any warning. Identifying potential hazards ahead of time
and advance planning can reduce the dangers of serious injuries or loss of life from an
earthquake. At a community level or as an individual, repairing deep plaster cracks in the
ceilings and foundations, anchoring overall lighting fixtures and following local seismic
building standards will help reduce the impact of earthquakes.
Stay as safe as possible during an earthquake. Be aware that some tremors are actually
foreshocks and larger earthquake might occur. Minimize you movement to few steps and
stay indoor until the shaking has stopped. If you are in-door, drop yourself to the ground
and take cover by getting under a sturdy table or some other piece of furniture. Try to stay
away from the glass, windows and lighting and hanging fixtures. Use a doorway for
shelter only if it is in close proximity to you. Research has shown that most injuries occur
when people inside building attempt to move to a different location inside the building
and try to leave it. If you are out-door, try to keep away from buildings, streetlights and
utility wires. The greatest danger exists directly outside buildings and its exits or
alongside its exterior walls. Many people reportedly killed when they ran outside the
building by falling debris from collapsing walls. Ground movement during an earthquake
is seldom the direct cause of death or injury.

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We suggest that Geological Survey of Pakistan should have a complete in-depth study on
the earthquakes recently occurred in Pakistan. How it causes earthquakes in territorial
danger zones with the detailed seismic precautions and measures to cope up the disasters.
The studies are made public so that people’s representatives in the Town and Local
councils of those zones should know what changes require specific observations and what
are their duties and obligations in case of some disaster. National Disaster Management
Authority is although well equipped with the resources to manage and handle such type
of disasters, yet it requires doing a lot more prior to the disasters. Only rescue and
rehabilitation is perhaps not the only answer to such catastrophe.
Dated 14.11.2008

Images by Courtesy. BBC News. History of World Earthquakes.

Courtesy.This article is published in Technobiz magazine in its December, 2008 issue.