Dr Sridevi Jade, Director, CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI), at GPS web site in Ladakh’s Hanle
Hanle, Ladakh:
The army stand-off between India and China alongside the Line of Actual Control (LAC) discovered an amicable answer lately. However, one other form of tug-of-war between India and China – a steady and historical tectonic one – has been occurring with the Indian tectonic plate always dropping land by sliding underneath the Tibetan plate. The Indian landmass has been shrinking as its tectonic plate has been sliding underneath the Eurasian or Tibetan plate.
This correspondent skilled the struggle of continents first-hand excessive within the Himalayas at Hanle in Ladakh, the place within the final 25 years or so Hanle could have risen by about 2.5 centimetres since this correspondent’s final go to nearly 1 / 4 century in the past to the identical places.
In a quirk of geological historical past, the Indian landmass is subducting or slipping underneath the Tibetan of the Asian landmass primarily comprising the present geographical space of China. This can also be the explanation the Himalayas – thought of the ever-growing and youngest mountains – hold rising 5 millimetres per 12 months. The peak of Mount Everest, too, retains going up.
This pull and tug beneath the Earth’s floor in northern India beneath the Himalayas is the foundation reason for earthquakes within the Himalayan area. As the Indian plate slides beneath the Eurasian plate, steadily pressure is constructed up nearly like gradual tightening of rubber band, then there comes some extent when the taut pressure is launched as the bottom provides method, resulting in earthquakes.
In reality, some components of the Himalayan area haven’t confronted a mega-earthquake in additional than 500 12 months, and a few say a mega-earthquake is lengthy overdue within the area. Experts say one can solely construct extra resilient and earthquake-resistant constructions to save lots of lives since earthquakes can’t be stopped and even forecast as of now.
This tug-of-war between the Indian and the Tibetan plates has its origins in a phenomenon referred to as continental drift, which began nearly 60-70 million years in the past; it is also usually referred to as the ‘mega breakup’.
NDTV Science Editor Pallava Bagla on the web site in Ladakh’s Hanle the place he noticed the tectonic tug-of-war first-hand
The Indian landmass was part of the supercontinent referred to as ‘Gondwanaland’, which was located near the African continent. Because of the little-understood tectonic drama, the Indian plate began transferring northwards and for a very long time remained like an ever floating and cellular island.
Then sooner or later 10-15 million years in the past, the Indian plate crashed into the Asian plate. This resulted within the Himalayan mountain vary to be shaped. Since then the Indian plate is gently however firmly being squeezed and swallowed underneath the Tibetan plate on the fee of 5 to six centimetres per 12 months.
To precisely monitor what is occurring on the bottom, Indian scientists from the CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI), Bengaluru, have arrange high-accuracy reference stations one on the Tibetan plate at Hanle in Ladakh and the opposite at Bengaluru. By monitoring the motion of those reference factors utilizing subtle world positioning system (GPS) devices and satellites, the Indian group can assess how the land plenty have moved respective to one another.
“In these final 25 years, Hanle has moved by nearly 85 centimetres northeastwards. And India, allow us to say in Bengaluru, has moved ahead by 1.37 metres northeast. This motion causes stress, which manifests in earthquakes,” mentioned Dr Sridevi Jade, Director, CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI), Bengaluru, and a specialist on measuring the continental drift.
The saving grace although, as Dr Jade mentioned, is that “India is unlikely to vanish anytime quickly.”