Gujarat Earthquake
On 26 January 2001, India received its second largest earthquake after the Bihar Earthquake that shook India in 1934. At 8:40 am the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck, and lasted for two minutes. Several villages and towns were demolished in the disaster. Buildings were destroyed or damaged in the quake. The famous Swaminarayan temple in the city of Bhuj was also partially damaged.
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Indian officials say more than 2,000 bodies have been recovered so far.
Thousands more are still thought to be trapped inside collapsed buildings. 400 children inside a school building in Bhuj, were trapped. In neighbouring Pakistan, at least eight people died, including two children in the city of Hyderabad who were killed when their home collapsed. Violent ground shaking was felt in Bhuj for nearly 85 seconds with a couple minutes of lower level shaking. The full length of shaking at Ahmedabad and Surat was around 90 seconds and was felt for a similar length of time in other parts of India. A strong movement of accelerograph (an accelerograph is recorder that uses an accelerometer, which as you can tell from the name detects the acceleration of the ground.) in Bhuj did not achieve activation due to a cable failure, resulting in the loss ofi scientific data. Monique Papanicolaou |