“Our experience so far has been the natural post-quake phenomenon known as aftershocks. But what we are experiencing since Wednesday is a series of unexplained blasts. But we are unaware where they are earthquake related or not, as the country research facility is not as good as that of the developed world,” said Mahesh Thackar, principal of the government-run R R Lalan college and a senior research scholar on palaeoseismicity (study of past earthquakes).
He said Japan, the US and France had done thorough research on the unexplained underground blasts like the ones happening in Kutch now. But in the absence of a thorough geological knowledge of the past, nothing much can be learned.
District Collector R R Varsani said he had informed the government about the unexplained blasts in the district. While a team of geologists from the state institute of Seismological Research Centre, Gandhinagar, is being sent for examining the phenomenon, Varsani said he was not aware of any such thing.
He said the state control room had informed him that the district had experienced five tremors ranging between 2.1 and 2.9 on the Richter Scale with their epicentre at Chaubari, Amarapar and Samakhiyali in eastern Kutch, which had experienced the worst scenario during 2001.
While Sabdeeo Agarwal, a geo-seismologist on duty at the centre did confirm a tremor of 2.6 magnitude on the Richter, adding that a team had been dispatched to the border district for further study, the seismological department at Delhi, which has a state-of-the art seismological observatory here, has denied any such recording.
“No, our instrument did not record any such tremors,” said N V Patel, seismological observer at Bhavnagar on Sunday.
Experts are at a loss to explain this new phenomenon, though they all opine that it is important to study them earnestly, as the border district falls in the most dangerous category of seismic zone five. The nearly half a dozen coastal and land fault lines in this region are also active, they say.
Sources also lament the absence of experienced seismologists in the GSIR team. “There are some 20 qualified geologists with almost all having their master's degrees in geology or seismology, but none have any experience in research. Only the institute head, Rastogi has some real experience, having worked at the Hyderabad-based National Geophysic Research Institute as its director. The others have mere academic qualifications and are mostly junior scientists engaged on short-term projects,” an official told this paper on condition of anonymity.
He said similar blasts had occurred before at Talala, Junagadh and Bhavnagar and they were studied in detail, but scientists were unable to explain the causes behind those activities. “The same would be fate of this study as well,” the source added.