Abstract
WE have received from the Under Secretary of State for India an advance copy of a, brief report on the Quetta earthquake. In the loss of human life, it ranks as one of the most destructive of all known Indian earthquakes. Its disturbed area was probably less than 300,000 square miles, while the Assam earthquake of 1897, the Kangra earthquake of 1905 and the North Bihar earthquake of 1934 were all felt over areas of between lj and 2 million square miles. The cpiccntral area is a band about 70 miles long and 15 miles wide, running from Quetta, through Mastung, to midway between Mastung and Kalat. One of the most striking features of the earthquake was its brief duration, which was probably less than half a minute. The intensity of the shock rapidly diminished from the central area, suggesting that the focus was perhaps not more than a mile or two below the surface. In the district between Peshawar and Karachi, the alignment of the mountain ranges is abruptly broken by a. marked ro-cntrant angle running up through Sibi to Quetta. At the apex of this angle, the rocks must be in a condition of great strain, and it is possibly the sudden yielding of the rocks under this strain that causes the numerous earthquakes in this part of Baluchistan.
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Quetta Earthquake of May 31. Nature 136, 331 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136331a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136331a0