New quake fault lines can't hide beneath forests

it might just be easier to predict earthquakes now. uk-based Leicester University researchers have successfully used a technology to detect fault lines, the causal location of earthquakes. The researchers used the light detection and ranging (lidar) method to detect fault line movements, which help predict earthquakes.
Earthquake prediction lidar helps in assessing the magnitude of the fault lines thereby throwing light on the recurrence of earthquakes. It is usually difficult to detect fault lines under thick forest cover but lidar penetrates deep forest cover making such zones visible.A lidar image of a landscape covered with a forest reveals the entire forest floor topography in high resolution (see box New technology). This enables surface faults, fracture patterns, landslides and many other geological features to be resolved in unprecedented detail.

For the study, researchers used the laser probe to map active fault systems in south-eastern Alps in Slovenia. Using the technology, they were able to detect movement pattern of Idrija and the Ravne, two tectonic plates in the region. The results of the preliminary studies have been published in Geophysical Research Letters.

"Many regions in the world have seismically active faults lying hidden by dense forests. These include Indonesia, India, North America, Andean nations and the Alpine countries of Europe," says Dickson Cunningham of the Leicester University's Department of Geology, who is the lead author of the study. He terms unidentified fault lines as 'ticking time bombs'.

"This study will help to estimate possibilities of future earthquakes and help in better preparedness to minimise the damage associated with earthquakes," says Amir H Malik of the Department of Environmental Science at comsats Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan. lidar is also helpful in mountainous terrains that usually pose a challenge to seismic studies because remote areas tend not to be well mapped. Besides, reaching out to these areas is also a tough task.
Not in India yet Northward movement of the Indian tectonic plate along major fault systems in Pakistan and India's northern parts had caused a massive earthquake in October 2005 claiming thousands of lives.

"The fault detection system in India is based on historical data-records of earthquakes and field-based reports. lidar hasn't been used in India yet. We see it as a promising technology and we will see how we can initiate similar studies in India," says P K Bansal, director, seismology division of the Department of Science and Technology, Delhi.
GPR system Besides, ground-penetrating radar (gpr) is also used for fault identification in India. gpr produces an underground cross-sectional image of the subsurface soil and rock. At geological mapping sites, gpr can locate buried stream channels, obtain bedrock profiles and provide cross-sectional images of soil layers including faults.

But lidar should make up for the shortcomings of gpr technology and boost disaster management programmes like never before.

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