No Volcano in quake-hit Pakistan: Geologists
PakistanTimes.net Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Fears of a volcano pushing through the earthquake-shattered mountains of northern Pakistan have proved unfounded, geologists said on Wednesday.

People in the remote Alai valley of North West Frontier Province had mistaken dust arising from landslides triggered by a strong aftershock on Sunday for smoke, said Allah Bakhsh Kausar of the Geological Survey of Pakistan.

“I have spoken to the geologists sent to the area last night and they said there was no volcanic activity there,” he said after the army flew a team of experts to the area by helicopter.

Dust and Fog

“The dust and fog hang in the air for a while because of the cold and it triggered panic in the area,” he said following the aftershock of 6.0 magnitude which had its epicentre near the valley. “There is no crack in the mountains, there is no eruption,” Kausar said.

The aftershock was one of the strongest of around 900 recorded since Oct. 8 quake, which killed more than 53,000 people and left over 75,000 seriously injured.

In-depth

The explosions in the mountainous Alai valley are due to leakage of trapped gases and there is no evidence of any volcanic activity, geologists told Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

The Prime Minister Shaukat who visited Alai was informed that the team specially flown in earlier from Peshawar after reports of tremors and explosions in the area, had found no such evidence.

“There is no chance of any kind of volcanic eruption or activity [in the area],” Director Geological Survey of Pakistan Ghaffar Afridi told the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to a question said the government was conducting a seismic survey to ascertain the reasons for the aftershocks.

“Teams of seismic experts and geologists are surveying the area to identify any specific reasons which cause these aftershocks and tremors.”

Explosions

He said the government would share the information with the people, when something tangible is found. Military officials said around 2300 explosions were reported in the area, some of which also caused tremors and panicked the people of the area.

The Military helicopters surveyed the area on Monday, but said they could not find any “greenish fires” in the mountains, as were reported in the media, however they did find cracks and fissures in the mountain sides, a tell-tale sign of sub soil activity.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who has been visiting the quake affected areas regularly specially flew into the valley despite the inclement weather, but had to cut short his trip, owing to the rain.

The local military commander briefed the Prime Minister about the pace of relief work. He said the people in the highlands had started moving to the valleys after the aftershocks and said the army was considering a plan to shift them to safer places, away from the harsh winters.

He said the people would be initially shifted to the valley and then to Thakot, Havelian or Haripur.

Prime Minister Aziz said it was important that the people living on the mountains in the earthquake affected areas move down to the valleys before the onset of harsh Himalayan winter.

“We will provide you shelter, food, medical care and schools for children and the weather will be more bearable,” Prime Minister Aziz told the group of people at Allai valley.

“It will get very difficult for the people to live without shelter, once the temperatures drop and it is not possible to construct houses in a few days,” he added.

The picturesque valley which bore the brunt of Oct 8th devastating earthquake sub-district of Batgram and remained cut off till Monday with the rest of the country came in the media limelight after reports of continuing aftershocks and explosions, causing panic among its people.

The Director Geological Survey has said that their study had found nothing to suggest that there was some kind of volcanic activity in the area and the explosions were caused by the escaping gases into the air through fissures. He said there was movement of tectonic plates towards North.

Release of Energy

Release of the energy stored, had caused havoc in Muzaffarabad and Balakot. However there was not much risk in these areas as much of the pressure had already been released and only minor tremors were likely.

When asked about the rumours of an impending earthquake, he said no predictions can be made.

He said earthquakes occur when the plates under earth’s surface collide with each other.

He said it was in the same area in 1975 when a quake struck Patan and caused a lot of damage.

Alai has around 230 hamlets and villages with the highest settlement at an altitude of over 2000 meters and a population of 194,000.

Estimates suggested that around 4000 people were killed due to the quake.●