Earthquake Movements and Engineering Structures

During the course of the discussion on the paper on the water supply in Baluchistan, last session, I mentioned that I should not be surprised to hear of an earthquake in that neighborhood. The earthquake has happened. The area affected was less in extent than in the case of Bihar but the loss of life and property was on a much bigger scale. In the Bihar earthquake about 900 miles of railway line were destroyed, 361 bridges were damaged and 2,000,000 acres of cultivable land were affected out of which 200,000 acres were a total loss, the fields and countryside being covered with sand. That shock lasted for five minutes and was felt over an area of not less than 1,900,000 square miles. The area suffering greatest destruction was one of the most densely populated districts in the world and had it not been the busiest time of the day when people were working out of doors, the loss of life would have been colossal. The Quetta disaster is still shaking the land. The zone of the greatest destruction passed through the Quetta valley and the town was entirely demolished. About 40,000 lives were lost in the neighborhood of Quetta itself and property worth crores of rupees now lies buried under the debris of the town. It is not necessary here to give a detailed description of the damage wrought and the effects produced, as these have already appeared in the Press. Engineers should know the causes of such phenomena, the hypotheses underlying them, whether it is possible to be forewarned against them and how to build structures which will withstand them. And I propose to discuss these questions in this paper. I have drawn my conclusions from what has appeared in the Press and from reports of similar disasters elsewhere.