Jammu and Kashmir was shaken on Sunday afternoon with a 6.8 jolt on Richter Scale triggering panic along north India. The frequent wave of tremors that have shaken the region may have lasting impact on the geographical features with some areas sinking and some rising on the surface. Over 100 seismic events have been recorded in the region over the past six months alone and some rocked the earth like a boat, while most of them passed unnoticed. The vast majority of these events originating in parts of the Hindu Kush Range located in Afghanistan and Tajikistan were felt as far as Islamabad and Lahore and northern India. The region is roughly located on top of the meeting point for the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and frequent shifting of the plate makes Hindu Kush as one of the most seismically hazardous regions on earth. In a report on earthquakes in this region, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has noted that Hindu Kush shares this high-stress configuration with a seismically active area in Colombia, South America. These two regions have some of the world’s highest rates of deep earthquakes. However, scientists admit that they do not know a great deal about the forces that are in play at such depths. The USGS has stated that most of such earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates rubbing together. The deep under activities are pushing up the Himalayan Mountain Range in the process. Due to friction along the plate boundaries, the collisions are not smooth or even. When the rocks finally give way under the strain, the plates jerk rapidly, releasing the energy that causes an earthquake. With the collision of plates pushing land upwards, nearby regions may gradually end up gaining altitude or conversely, some areas can start sinking too. Jammu and Kashmir residents will have to live with nature’s threat and the people will have to get familiar with precautions and rescue operations. The frequency is an indicator of some big jolt like of October 2005 when a large portion of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and some portion of Kashmir faced devastation in terms of lives and properties.
