Earthquake is such a tragedy that disturbs our life and if the intensity of the earthquake is high, then apart from heavy damage, many lives are also lost.
Earthquakes keep happening in one or the other corner of the country, causing many damages.
It is such a natural calamity that no special efforts can be made to prevent it except to protect oneself. In such a situation, it is important to understand why earthquakes happen, so let’s know why earthquakes happen?
Our earth is mainly made up of three layers.
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Mantle
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Crust
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Central Core
The upper mantle layer (Mantle Layer) is called the ‘lithosphere’. This 50 km thick layer is divided into sections, which are called tectonic plates.
Normally this tectonic plate keeps on moving in its place and keeps on being displaced. This theory is also called plate tectonic theory. But when these plates start moving more than an earthquake occurs on the earth.
Which instrument is used to measure earthquakes?
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Richter scale (Richter Scale)
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Merkel scale (Mercalli Scale)
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reactor scale (Richter Scale)
Theis the scale of the earthquake so the intensity is the measure reactor scale (Richter Scale) also called reactor Magnitud Test Scale.
This scale was discovered in 1935 by Charles Reichter, a scientist working at the California Institute of Technology in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg. The magnitude of an earthquake per scale increases ten-fold when measured with the same scale, and the energy resistance released during an earthquake increases thirty-two times on this scale. This means that the magnitude of an earthquake on the three-reactor scale increases tenfold on the four-richter scale.
The magnitude of the earthquake on the reactor scale can be gauged from the fact that when an earthquake of eight reactor scale occurs, 6 million tons of explosive energy can be generated.
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Mercalli Scale
Mercalli Scale can also be used to measure earthquakes. But in this scale earthquakes are measured on the basis of strength rather than intensity. This scale is rarely used.
The intensity of the earthquake is estimated by the waves of energy emanating from the epicenter of the earthquake. This wave extends for hundreds of kilometers and the vibrations caused by it cause cracks inside the earth. If the earthquake comes in the depth of the earth, then there is not much damage on the surface of the earth, but if the depth of the earthquake is shallow, then due to the energy coming out of it very close to the surface, there is a lot of destruction and huge loss of life and property.
The risk of earthquakes varies from place to place in the Indian subcontinent. India is divided into four parts on the basis of earthquake zones. Zone two, zone three, zone four and zone five.
Out of which zone two is the least dangerous zone, while zone five is considered to be the most dangerous zone. All the states of North East, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, some parts of Himachal Pradesh fall in zone five only. Whereas most parts of the south fall in zone two.
Where there is a limited risk of earthquakes. The earthquake in the seas off Indonesia and the Philippines took the form of a tsunami and killed millions of people in India, Sri Lanka and Africa. Similarly, India has also experienced earthquakes in Latur, Gujarat, Kutch and Jammu and Kashmir in Maharashtra.