Earthquake aftershocks to continue: NGRI

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October 10, 2005 22:41 IST

With the magnitude of Saturday's earthquake being "very high", the aftershocks are likely to continue for a period between six months and a year, a senior official of the National Geophysical Research Institute said in Hyderabad Monday.

The NGRI has been able to record aftershocks, several of them even after two days, since the earthquake occurred.

These shocks will continue for several months, NGRI Director V P Dimri told PTI.

Saturday's earthquake claimed thousands of lives in Pakistan destroying hundreds of villages and also claimed so far more than 900 lives in Jammu and Kashmir.

Dimri said, however, the aftershocks will be below 6 on the richter scale and the lower intensity ones will be higher in number and will keep on coming. The aftershocks follow the Omaris law and as time advances, these aftershocks will reduce as an inverse power law, he said.

The NGRI director said since the earthquake was shallow at 10 km below the surface from where it originated, the devastation of the earthquake was very high.

He said that high wave lengths due to shallowness cause devastation. Had the depth been deeper the devastation would have been low, he added.

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