When an earthquake modified the course of the river Ganges two and a half thousand years in the past

In keeping with a brand new examine, the biggest earthquake within the subcontinent since a devastating earthquake two and a half thousand years in the past River Ganges The path had immediately modified. This historic occasion is massive in South Asia Earthquakes It additionally highlights the present menace of

Consultants from the Columbia Local weather College concerned on this examine have found an undocumented earthquake that badly affected present-day Bangladesh.

Geophysicist Michael Steckler, co-author of the examine revealed within the scientific journal Nature, mentioned, “I do not assume we have ever seen such a powerful earthquake anyplace.”

The Ganges River is the second largest river on the earth following the Amazon in South America, flowing north earlier than becoming a member of the Brahmaputra River and flowing into the Bay of Bengal. India And Bangladesh It flows for greater than 2,500 km.

It’s a huge maze of waterways that irrigates probably the most densely populated space on the planet.

Researchers say that when earthquakes stress buried sand, it erupts like a ‘sand volcano’ (Liz Chamberlain).

Though earthquakes can change the construction of the Earth, their results on river channels are usually not totally understood.

Rivers can change course occasionally even with out earthquakes, however this course of is normally attributable to repeated floods over years or many years.

As a river modifications its course, silt (or silt) is transported upstream and deposited, finally elevating the riverbed above the encompassing floodplain.

However when this (direction-changing) shift is attributable to an earthquake, mudflows can happen virtually instantaneously.

Within the new examine, scientists found a novel silt that was found for the primary time in a freshly dug pond close to Dhaka, which was not but crammed with water.

At one aspect of the pond, he noticed a vertical sandbar recognized for its seismic options.

The researchers mentioned that when earthquakes stress the buried sand, it erupts like a ‘sand volcano’.

On additional evaluation, scientists discovered that the sand dunes within the pond have been created on the similar time, regarding 2,500 years in the past.

This part incorporates associated reference factors (Associated Nodes subject).

The same alteration was found at a website regarding 85 km downstream.

The researchers say these modifications are proof of the primary course of the river, which used to circulation regarding 100 km south of Dhaka.

This fossil channel of the Ganges is a low-lying space regarding 1.5 km broad and extends intermittently for regarding 100 km parallel to the current river course.

Scientists mentioned that the extinct river channel is ceaselessly flooded and is especially used for rice cultivation.

The researchers concluded from their examine that this was attributable to a ‘massive and sudden earthquake with a magnitude of seven or eight that struck the area two and a half thousand years in the past.

He mentioned that the earthquake was most likely attributable to the slippage of a big tectonic plate within the sea beneath Bangladesh, Myanmar and northeastern India.

The scientists famous that these zones are nonetheless producing stress that might produce earthquakes of the identical magnitude once more on this densely populated space.

Syed Humayun Akhtar, vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Open College and creator of the examine, mentioned: ‘Main earthquakes have an effect on massive areas which might have long-lasting financial, social and political results.’