Krishna-Godavari fault line may trigger quakes, tsunamis in Vizag

Krishna-Godavari fault line may trigger quakes, tsunamis in Vizag

Researchers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have found a major fault line along the coast in the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh and predicted that it could trigger earthquakes and tsunamis in the future.

HYDERABAD: Researchers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have found a major fault line along the coast in the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh and predicted that it could trigger earthquakes and tsunamis in the future.

The researchers said the fault was once active and it may become active again. This poses a major earthquake threat to the north coastal region of the state, particularly the port city of Visakhapatnam. They have described the long fracture line in the offshore of the KG basin as a “major coastal hazard in north Andhra Pradesh”.

The UoH team took up the research in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC). They uncovered the presence of once repetitively active fracture or fault line to the east of north AP. The fracture line has a maximum activity focussed in the vicinity of offshore Visakhapatnam.

They said the fracture line may possibly become active again in future and turn out to be a major coastal hazardous event associated with seismicity and tsunami in and around Visakhapatnam region.

According to the researchers, in the last 200 million years, two super-continents called Gondwana and Laurasia fragmented into a number of continental blocks, and then wandered to current positions on the surface of the Earth. In the process, the edges of continents are associated with one of the two categories of continental margins: passive and active margins.

“Passive margins are tectonically inactive and lie mostly on peripheries of Atlantic and Indian Oceans, while the active margins are bordered by the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The Eastern Margin of India broke apart from the East Antarctica 130 million years ago and presently adjoins the Bay of Bengal in its west is supposed to remain as a stable passive continental margin. Contrary to this conventional belief, the segment of the Eastern margin of India, geographically covers the north Andhra Pradesh, is associated with lateral movements together with seismicity and tsunami generations,” they said.

The research team comprised Prof KS Krishna and Dr M Ismail from UoH, Dr K Srinivas from NIO and Dr D Saha from ONGC. The research study revealed the presence of a 300 km long fracture line in the offshore region of north Andhra Pradesh and about 100 km away from the coastline.

The study published in the Journal of Earth System Science revealed that the fracture line was reactivated at 6.8 million years ago, and continued the activity progressively until 0.3 million years before cessation. It concluded that fracture line activity in offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin was variable in nature. There were intensive tsunami events. Presently, the fracture line is inactive and may possibly become active whenever the differential stresses on either side of the fracture line reach threshold level and may turn out to be a geohazard event in future.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/oil-and-gas/krishna-godavari-fault-line-may-trigger-quakes-tsunamis-in-vizag/77077048

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