What are Seismic Gaps and their significance?

Civil Services Main Examination

General Studies (Paper - 1) : Model Question & Answers


Question: What are Seismic Gaps? What is their significance?

Answer: The magnitude of the earthquake depends on the amount of the slip the tectonic plates undergo. Till a major earthquake actually occurs, scientists refer to regions of accumulated potential slip as Seismic Gap.

Seismic Gaps are prone to earthquakes because the accumulated strain beneath the surface has not been released. By identifying seismic gaps, we can get to know the proneness of a region to earthquakes. There are a number of seismic gaps, each spanning 200 km or more, in the Himalayas which can produce earthquakes of greater than 7.5 magnitude.

Seismic Gaps

The knowledge of these seismic gaps’ locations in the country can provide us basis for planning. The development plans should be in accordance with their distribution. The presence of a number of seismic gaps in Himalayan region suggests that we should avoid big irrigation projects as these can trigger off earthquakes of high magnitude leading to catastrophic consequences of entire northern region.

Mapping of Seismic Gaps in the country is the best we can do till the time we reach to a stage where we can predict earthquakes.

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