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Long widespread cracks observed in several places in the Indo-Gangetic plains could be due to motion of a massive granitic body underneath, an Indian scientist in the United States has cautioned.
"It is my sincere appeal to the government of India to monitor seismic activities in the area before any major disaster takes place," Ramesh Singh, who had extensively studied the seismology in that region, said in a statement as concern mounted over cracks being formed in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
"If the orientations of such long cracks are in the east-west direction, then the cracks could be due to stress on the surface of the earth due to motion of this massive craton (granitic body) which is exposed near Jhansi," Singh said.
Singh, who was a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K), is now professor at George Mason University in Washington and vice chair of GeoRisk Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
He said this massive body underlying the region is inclined towards northeast with depth reaching 300-500 m near Kanpur and 1,200 m in Lucknow. He said he and his colleagues at IIT-K had studied the configuration of this craton in 1990 using magnetotelluric method.