Earthquake Journal Entry
Death Toll Climbs From India Quake (February 1, 2001)
The star shows the epicenter of last week's catastrophic earthquake in northwestern India. The black line shows the Pakistan border. USGS.
The death toll from last week's massive earthquake in northwestern India continued rising as more victims were found in the rubble this week. Indian officials say more than 25,000 people died in the most destructive earthquake to strike India in memory.
Many of the victims were found in the ruins of the hard-hit city of Bhuj in Gujarat state. The city remains without electricity or fresh water. The quake left nearly 600,000 people homeless.
Nearly 100 villages and towns including Bhachau, located close to the quake's epicenter between the Gulf of Kutch and the Pakistani border, was almost completely destroyed. In Ahmedabad, the state's commercial center with a population of 4.5 million, more than 100 high rise buildings collapsed and the Nehru bridge over the Sabarmati River was damaged.
The quake has been followed by many aftershocks of up to magnitude 5.9 that slowed rescue efforts. The tremor also triggered an oil spill in Kandia, Gujarat's busiest port.
Thousands of quake survivors are now threatened by disease from contaminated water and cramped, unsanitary conditions. Many people have come down with digestive and respiratory illnesses. Health officials are concerned about a possible outbreak of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
Relief workers are faced with the huge challenge of providing food, water, medicine, clothing, and shelter to hundreds of thousands of quake survivors. A U.N. World Food Program flight brought in over 40 tons of emergency supplies.
The quake struck along a thrust fault, along which one block of crust suddenly lurches upward, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the boundary between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates. The Gujarat tremor is an "intraplate" earthquake, striking along a fault within the Indo-Australian plate far from the plate boundary.
For millions of years, the Indo-Australian plate has pushed northward into the Eurasian plate. The majestic Himalayan mountains were created by this collision. The mountains are still being thrust upward at a rate of about two inches (five centimeters) per year.
