Abstracts
Livelihoods
Panel II: Earthquake: Disaster Management in the Context of Pakistan
Session II:
 Institutional Apparatuses in Disaster Mitigation--Experiences from the Field
Shaukat Sharar*
In the wake of the 8th October 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan, the response of the formal institutional frameworks was not exemplary. Lack of appropriate database and relevant tools made the communication gape wider between those who sought help and those who wanted to offer some thing. The revenue database, the NADRA database, and the Census records were almost irrelevant. The local knowledge system of the inhabitants of the quake-hit areas was alien for the most urbanite relief workers.
Though there is an abundance of resources in all forms, the use of modern techniques complementing the traditional practices is what needed to enhance the relief and rehabilitation efforts. More important is to involve the local community in the relief and rehabilitation endeavors. The paper will highlight the inadequacies on the part of official machinery, the poor response from the state institutions, and the techniques with which the post-disaster issues can be better managed.
* Shaukat Sharar hails from Swat. He graduated in Architecture in 1989 and has been associated with the progressive nationalist movement since then. He is actively involved in the earthquake response in Shangla and Kohistan.
Geological Aspects of Disaster Management
Zulfiqar Ahmad*
The Kashmir Earthquake (also known as the Northern Pakistan Earthquake or South Asia Earthquake) of 2005 was an earthquake that occurred at 08:50:38 am Pakistan Standard Time on October 8 with an epicenter in the Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir. It registered 7.6 on the moment magnitude scale, making it a major earthquake quite similar in intensity to the 1935 Quetta earthquake, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 1966 San Francisco earthquake.
Kashmir lies in the area where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates are colliding. Out of this collision, the Himalayas emerged 50 million years ago, and continue to rise by about 5 mm/year. As the Indian Plate moves northward at a rate of about 40 mm/yr (1.6 inches/yr), it is being pushed beneath the Eurasian plate. Much of the compressional motion between these two colliding plates has continued to be accommodated by slip on a suite of major thrust faults that are at the Earth’s surface in the foothills of the mountains and dip northward between the ranges. These include the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), the Main Central Thrust (MCT), and the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT).
The first motion began at Kashmir fault with the hypocenter located at 10 KM depth below the land surface, which is considered to be the silver (offshoot) of the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT). Soon after the motion shifted to the MBT, a slip of about 6.23 meters was developed in 28 seconds with the activation of thrust fault. All aftershocks that have been experienced appear to have their epicenters 50 to 70 Km in the northwest of the Main Shock Epicenter. As a result, a rupture zone extending southeast to northwest has been established in an ellipsoidal form, which has weakened the bondage between the Kashmir Block and the Hazara Block.
Design parameters have been evaluated for 200 years return period using softwares such as Seism and EQ-risk of GTZ at a specific location of Margalla Hills, north of Pir Sohawa at a latitude 73o-07’-30” N, and a longitude 33o-47’-00” E. Thus, the paper will look at various geological patters and dimensions of Pakistan’s 2005 Earthquake.
* Prof. Dr. Zulfiqar Ahmed is Chairman, Department of Earth Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam University.
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