“Hill stations near Chandigarh are geologically upside down hence prone to seismic activity” Dr Ritesh Arya.

  “Hill stations near Chandigarh are geologically upside down hence prone to seismicactivity” Dr Ritesh Arya.

“Hill stations near Chandigarh are geologically upside down hence prone to seismic activity” Dr Ritesh Arya. 

Earthquakes represent the Next tectonic event and  is expected in the Shivaliks along the path of the old Saraswati river and the present Ghaggar river, says Dr Ritesh Arya,Guinness world Record Holders and an international famed Geologist of Chandigarh. He said that the foothill areas like Parwanoo, Pinjore and Panchkula fell into this zone. He feels that earthquake in Nepal is a warning to the authorities and private institutions bent on constructing cities with high-rise buildings and big industrial areas in North India especially if we are talking about Shimla, Solan, Parwanoo and Surajpur axis located near Chandigarh. Dr Arya while talking to this reporter said that today these towns are located in zones which were geologically upside down by this he meant that older rocks were resting on the younger rocks as a result of which the entire sequence was geologically very fragile and susceptible to greater damage in the event of epicenter being concentrated upon these zones or these towns. Surajpur region is located on the Surajpur Thrust where Tehtyan Himalayan Limestone sequence is resting over the younger Shiwalik formation. In Parwanoo the Lower Shiwalik Formation (15 million years old) comprising of sandstone and shale representing fresh water terrestrial environment is overlain by Subathu Limestone and black carboniferous (age approx 55 million years old) representing marine environment at the time deposition.“This gap in the depositional history is the matter of concern and is also the cause of concentration of seismic activity in the region,” warns Dr Arya. He has done geological fieldwork around Surajpur-Shimla Highway and found that this section was very well exposed in the Parwanoo sector 4 Area where an experimental well was drilled few years back to monitor the earthquake but there was few practical problems and the instrument started recording the movement of the trucks and heavy vehilcles and the project was prematurely abandoned Dwelling on his study, he said that in Barog or Solan, the Subathu formation which was 55 Million years old was being overlain or thrusted by Krol Formation which was more than 400 Million years old. Similarly in Shimla town, the metamorphosed Shilma Slates are overlying the younger sedimentary tertiary sequence of Subathu, says he. “The Indian subcontinent has had its share of earthquakes. From mild, to moderate and to devastating ones, Earthquakes happen every year in India.