Ministry of Earth Sciences to setup 31 new seismological observatories by end of 2017

Around 31 new seismological observatories are likely to open up in the country by the end of 2017 to enhance the information gathering capability on earthquakes.

The observatories are beneficial in such a sense that they generate the ground motion data captured by the digital seismograph used for estimation of data and other earthquake parameters.

The observatories will come in 14 different states with the National Centre of Seismology (NCS) installing five units in Uttar Pradesh, four in Haryana and Bihar, three in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, Two in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and one each in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Punjab and Lakshadweep.

For now, The NSC is maintaining a National Seismological Network (NSW) with 84 seismological laboratories across the country.

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After an earthquake occurs, seismological observatories record the activities; pass them on to the control room, which generates relevant data on the occurrence of a quake.

This crucial piece of information comprising depth, time magnitude and location of the quake, is passed on to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, ministries and state governments concerned and all the district collectors in the country.

In this regard, Ministry of Earth Sciences said that the future plan is to increase the observatories to 150 by next year. The Secretary of the Ministry M Rajeevan said that the number of observatories give precise readings in terms of location and timings and they are planning to take the total number of seismological observatories to 116 by the end of the year.

“With this, we intend to reduce the time taken to give details of an earthquake from 5 to 3-4 minutes. The information is also useful for taking swift action in case of a major quake,” Rajeevan added.  

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