The 1999 Chamoli earthquake occurred on 29 March in the

Chamoli district Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by the Tibet region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar to the east, Almora to the south, Pauri Garhwal to the southwest, ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

(now in

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

). Approximately 103 people died in the earthquake.

Cause

The

Himalaya Range The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

has been undergoing crustal shortening along the 2,400 km long northern edge of the

Indian Plate The Indian Plate (or India Plate) is a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian Plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana , began ...

which resulted in the formation of several

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

s including the

Main Central Thrust The Main Central Thrust is a major geological fault where the Indian Plate has pushed under the Eurasian Plate along the Himalaya. The fault slopes down to the north and is exposed on the surface in a NW-SE direction (strike). It is a thrust fault ...

(MCT), the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT). The MCT consists of three sub-thrusts: MCT I, MCT II and MCT III. Many earthquakes have occurred along these thrust faults. It is thought that the Chamoli earthquake in 1999 was associated with these fault systems.Chamoli (Himalaya, India) Earthquake of 29 March 1999
''National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering''

Description

The

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

was the strongest to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than ninety years.World: South Asia Quake death toll nears 100
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'' Apart from the Chamoli district, the quake also affected five other districts of Uttar Pradesh viz.

Rudraprayag Rudraprayag is a town and a municipality in Rudraprayag district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Rudraprayag is one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River, the point of confluence of rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini. K ...

Tehri Garhwal Tehri Garhwal is a district in the hill state of Uttarakhand, India. Its administrative headquarters is at New Tehri. The district has a population of 618, 931 (2011 census), a 2.35% increase over the previous decade. It is the 7th ranked dist ...

Bageshwar Bageshwar ( Kumaoni: ''Bāgshyār'') is a town and a municipal board in Bageshwar district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is located at a distance of 470 km from the National Capital New Delhi and 332 km from the State Capital ...

Uttarkashi Uttarkashi, meaning Varanasi, Kashi of the north, is a town located in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Uttarkashi town is headquarters of the district. Uttarkashi is also known as Somya Kashi. Uttarkashi is a religious place for spir ...

and

Pauri Garhwal Pauri Garhwal is a District (India), district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Its headquarters is in the town of Pauri. It is sometimes referred to simply as Garhwal district, though it should not be confused with the larger Garhwal regio ...

(all are in

now). Among these, Chamoli and Rudraprayag were the most affected districts. Aftershocks continued and most of the aftershocks occurred in the east of Chamoli. Officials from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

reported that the quake was also felt in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

and Gujranwala.

Damage and casualties

Severe ground deformations resulted from the earthquake. Formation of

ground fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

s were reported from many areas. Landslides and changes in the

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

flow were also reported. Well-developed ground cracks were seen in

Gopeshwar Chamoli Gopeshwar is a township in the Garhwal hills and a municipal board within Chamoli district. It is the administrative headquarters of the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand in India. Located above sea level, it is famous for its weather (p ...

, Chamoli and Bairagna. Cracks were observed in

asphalt road Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking ...

s at several locations. Landslips cut off parts of Mandakini valley and Mandal valley and many major roads. The death toll was 103. Several hundred people were injured and approximately 50,000 houses were damaged.Estimation of source parameters of Chamoli Earthquake, India
''Indian Academy of Sciences'' Over 2,000 villages were affected by the earthquake.

Electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...

and

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

were also severely affected by the earthquake especially in the Chamoli town,

and Okhimath region of

Rudraprayag district Rudraprayag is a district of the state of Uttarakhand of northern India. The district occupies an area of 1984 km2. The town of Rudraprayag is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district is bounded by Uttarkashi District ...

. According to Mike Wooldridge, correspondent for the

, Chamoli suffered most damage and almost all the houses and shops built on slopes in the lower part of the town were destroyed. The bridge deck of a pedestrian suspension bridge situated near Bairagna developed lateral

buckling In structural engineering, buckling is the sudden change in shape ( deformation) of a structural component under load, such as the bowing of a column under compression or the wrinkling of a plate under shear. If a structure is subjected to a ...

and the cables of the bridge were loosened.

Water pipelines Water transportation is the international movement of water over large distances. Methods of transportation fall into three categories: * Aqueducts, which include pipelines, canals, tunnels and bridges * Container shipment, which includes trans ...

in Chamoli and Gopeshwar towns were damaged affecting water supply due to landslides caused by the quake. The concrete-lined canals of the

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

network in the affected region sustained some cracks. In

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, many buildings sustained non-structural damage. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' According to Dr B.L. Wadhera, who filed a public interest litigation in the

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S ...

, cracks developed in the Shastri Bhavan in Delhi which houses several Union Ministries. ''The Hindu'' Damage occurred in several buildings in Dehradun also. A few old buildings of the Survey of India sustained collapse of gable masonry, and cracks developed along the junctions between the pitched roof and the masonry walls.

Relief efforts

Rescue operations were hampered by landslides, loss of electrical power and the loss of communication links with Chamoli. Many road workers became involved to clear landslide debris from a 16 km stretch of road leading to the worst-affected area. Local people carried out search and rescue operations. Rescue efforts were led by the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

and Paramilitary personnel were also called-in to aid. The army used

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

to ferry in supplies. Food and other necessary supplies were air-dropped to villages which lacked motorable roads and where roads were damaged due to landslides. Locals organized a committee to make sure that those most affected receive food.

References

External links

* * {{authority control 1999 Chamoli Chamoli earthquake Chamoli earthquake History of Uttarakhand (1947–present) Disasters in Uttarakhand Chamoli district March 1999 events in Asia