Lahore - The Pakistan Engineering Congress on Monday organized lectures on the various facts of the phenomena of earthquakes with a view to educate the participants on the scientific reasons of earth shakes, its historical background, present/future scenario projections, preventive measures, mitigations and formulation of a building codes.
Dr. Zahid Rafi, Director Seismic Centre, Pakistan Metrological Department, delivered lecture on the topic of “General Seismicity Pattern of Pakistan, Source Characterization and recent Seismicity Trend Analysis”
While Dr. Syed Amir Mehmood, Chairman Space Technology Department, Punjab University, spoke on the topic of “Newtectonics in Hindu Kush: Insights from Remote Sensing and GIS”.
The speakers said that there is a past history of earthquakes of high magnitude in pre partition India that caused immense loss of life and property. In 1905, Kangra (Punjab now Indian Territory) was struck with 7.8 magnitude Earthquake killing 20,000 or more persons. In 1935 Quetta (Capital of Balochistan now) was hit by an Earthquake of 7.7 magnitudes that caused 60,000 deaths and damaged most of the parts of the city.
In October 2005, a devastating earthquake of 7.8 magnitude on the reactor scale struck Azad Kashmir, Islamabad and north western frontier. The devastation caused in nonetary terms was approximately $12 billion but in physical it was heart breaking. In the backdrop of this scenario the
Pakistan Engineering Congress president Ch Ghulam Hussain said that the Congress endeavors to disseminate engineering knowledge and practice amongst its members and the engineering community at large. Its website displays a treasure of publications on various engineering aspects.