India gets two more earthquake observatories
The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) is setting up two more Multi-parametric Geophysical Observatories to monitor earthquake prone areas of Andaman Islands and Shillong, Meghalaya. Equipped with seismographs and accelerographs it will provide real time data to the scientists.
Mumbai: To beef up further monitoring of earthquake prone areas of Andaman Islands and the Himalayan belt, the government has decided to establish two more observatories, officials said.
Multi-parametric Geophysical Observatories (MGPOs) are being established in Andaman Islands and Shillong, Meghalaya, by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in collaboration with the city-based Indian Institute of Geomagnetism IIG), a unit of Department of Science and Technology (DST).
These facilities would assist in understanding the earthquake precursory phenomena in the regions and provide real time data to the scientists for quick analysis, said, MoES Secretary Shailesh Nayak .
The observatories will have seismographs and accelerographs to measure ground vibrations and radon gas measurements, Prof Shobana Alex of the IIG said.
The MGPO at Port Blair, being set up in forests, is likely to start functioning by the year-end. The one at Shillong will he housed in IIG’s magnetic observatory there and become operational by 2010-end, Alex said.
An MGPO has already come up at Ghuttu, Uttarakhand.
The Seismicity Programme of DST aims at understanding the earthquake processes and mechanisms related to the Indian lithosphere, their recurrence interval and manifestation on the surface for developing techniques for hazard mitigation.
