Symbolic picture
New Delhi: About 2500 years ago, a powerful earthquake struck the earth. According to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, the course of the Ganges river suddenly changed due to an earthquake that occurred about 2,500 years ago. At that time, the intensity of the earthquake was between 7 and 8 on the Richter scale. Researchers have found evidence of this. This would have affected 14 crore people.
An earthquake of 7-8 magnitude might have occurred
Researchers had seen seismites formed as a result of an earthquake in Bangladesh while exploring the area of the main route of the Ganges River in 2018. According to them, many such shapes were formed at the same time. Chemical analysis of the sand and mud here showed that an earthquake of about 7-8 magnitude occurred in this area about 2,500 years ago.
What the researchers say
“It could easily have led anyone and anything to the wrong place at the wrong time,” researcher Steckler said. According to lead author Elizabeth L. Chamberlain, assistant professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, this study is the first solid example of a deltaic erosion, especially for a large river like the Ganges. Using satellite images, the research team discovered the former main route of the Ganges River about 100 kilometers south of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It is a low-lying area about 1.5 kilometers wide, which was found intermittently for about 100 kilometers parallel to the current river route.
A big earthquake may come again
One is a subduction zone to the south and east, where a giant plate of oceanic crust is pushing itself beneath Bangladesh, Myanmar and northeastern India, the authors said. Another possibility, they said, is that the seismic shock originated in the foothills of the Himalayas to the north, which are rising as the Indian subcontinent slowly collides with the rest of Asia.
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