Tremors of fear as quakes rattle country

Frequent earthquakes have caused grave concern among the people, especially those living in Dhaka as they are believed to signal the possibility of a big earthquake.
Experts told The Independent yesterday that big quakes follow the cyclic order. No big quake has rocked this region for the last 70 years.
On September 21, on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, people of Dhaka as well as many districts of the country experienced twice moderate to strong earthquake measuring 6.4 and 5. 4 on the Richter scale that rocked the Bhutan-China border 462km north northeast and the Myanmar region 552 km northeast respectively from the Dhaka Met office.
The first quake occurred at 3.53pm on Monday, which lasted about 20 seconds and the second at 2.38am on Tuesday which lasted a few seconds. The quakes jolted Chittagong, Sylhet, Mymensingh, Netrokona, Sherpur, Panchagarh, Rangpur, Sirajganj, Tangail, Sunamganj and Nilphamari including capital city Dhaka.
“As the country has not experienced a devastating earthquake in the last 70 years, it is apprehended that the frequent mild to moderate jolts signal a catastrophe which may claim thousands of lives and damage properties,” the experts said.
They further warned that high-rise buildings constructed after filling various water bodies like canals, ponds and low-lying areas were most vulnerable.         
An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale may cause mayhem destroying many high-rise buildings, including the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, said an expert adding that many fire service buildings could also be damaged.
Deputy Director of the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) Reshad Md. Ekram Ali told The Independent that the government should reinforce such life-support buildings on a priority basis to withstand earthquakes.
Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, Department of Civil Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), told The Independent: “If there is an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale in Dhaka, it would result in the death of at least 1,31,000 people due to fragile and faulty structure of the residential buildings and commercial centres. Some 70,000 houses out of 3,26,825 houses will be completely destroyed.”
Professor Ansary said: “As Bangladesh is geographically located in the earthquake-prone zone and neighbouring countries are being hit frequently by powerful earthquakes, there is a possibility that Bangladesh might also experience a devastating earthquake at some point in time.”
“As we don’t have modern equipment for rescuing victims caused by earthquake at this moment, we can do nothing except watch as a silent spectator,” said Ekram Ali.
Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr M Abdur Razzak told The Independent yesterday: “It is very difficult to say what will happen after the catastrophe.”
He said the Works Ministry should force builders to construct their buildings according to the building code.
He said some sophisticated equipment like ladders, concrete cutters and cranes had been distributed to rescue agencies to face such a natural disaster.
Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansary said Bangladesh was earthquake prone as it lies along the border of the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates, where earthquakes occur at regular intervals. They are comparatively of uniform size.
In this region earthquakes may occur in a cyclic order of hundred years, he said adding that, the Great Indian Earthquake of 1897 was more likely to be repeated every hundred years. Among the seven severe earthquakes of the Himalayan range, the last one occurred in 1905.
He said an earthquake measuring around 5 on the Richter scale that rocked the Madhpur fault in 1885, a strong earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter that jolted Moheshkhali in 1999, another rocked Rangamati in 2003 which was 5.69 on the Richter scale and yet another earthquake rocked Manikganj on December 19, 2001 immediately after the day after Eid-ul-Fitr. The earthquake measuring above six points on the Richter scale occurred on May 8, 1997 in Sylhet, damaging some buildings. On November 21, in the same year another earthquake of 5.9 on the Richter scale hit Chittagong.
The northern region of Bangladesh lies above the seam of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and the eastern part is above the joint of the Burmese and Indian plates, the experts said.
According to experts, the Indian plate is very active and moving six centimetres in the directions of downward slope under Eurasian plate each year while the Burmese plate is moving north-west.
The entire North Bengal, including Dhaka city, was rocked by a moderate earthquake in December 2001, which caused cracks in some of the buildings in the city.
A strong earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale that rocked the Indian Ocean off India’s Andaman Islands on August 11 and another earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale that rocked the India-Myanmar border on September 4 also jolted Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong.
Bangladesh does not have modern equipment to combat such a catastrophic situation and experts emphasised the need for a preparedness and awareness programme by the government to face an earthquake.
 
Courtesy of The Independent