Deserted Nineteenth Century Paliwal Villages around Jaisalmer, Western Rajasthan, India:Historical Evidence of Palaeoseismicity

Seismicity or seismic susceptibility implies proneness to earthquake incidence in a region. For this we cannot depend entirely on instrumental records, because this facility was almost unknown about 70-odd years ago, whereas the 'period of quiescence' between two successive major earthquakes in a region may be hundreds of years and sometimes more. This places a severe constraint on the understanding of the regional variability of seismic susceptibility or the proneness of any particular region to the occurrence of an earthquake. In such cases, the necessity is to look for evidence of palaeoseismicity in historic/pre-historic and archaeological records, and for much older events the different fault features preserved in geomorphic features. Here we cite an incidence of seismic event based on the examination of a large number of deserted early nineteenth century houses scattered around Jaisalmer region in western Rajasthan, India. Lying unoccupied for about 190 years or more, evidence of destruction is observed in each and every house, which is not generally witnessed in disused old houses standing for hundred years or more. Looking into the nature of collapse-related flattening features such as collapsed roofs, fallen joists, lintels and pillars in all these houses, we suggest that these are manifestations of earthquake-related destruction. Such an assumption finds strong support from the observed evidence of recent tectonic activities and from the observed ground movements along several major faults in the region covering Jaisalmer and the adjoining areas.