Bangalore sitting on a potentially seismic fault: IISc

The fast growing IT capital of India, Bangalore, is sitting on a potentially seismic fault, according to a recent study carried out by the Indian Institute of Science.

The scientists are studying further to see how the new buildings that are coming up in the city will respond to, even during a moderate earthquake.

"Recent studies carried out by us showed presence of potentially active geological structures in the vicinity of Bangalore, one of them passes right through the IISc campus," Prof T G Sitharam of civil engineering department of IISc told PTI on Friday.

Bangalore has experienced several minor earthquakes in the 20th century. The damage caused by these earthquakes was not large.

Bangalore has grown rapidly during the last 20 years. Many new buildings and colonies have been built on dry lake beds, he said.

In order to ascertain what will happen to these buildings during a moderate earthquake and improve planning, it is important to identify sub-regions within Bangalore (essence of microzonation) that will then respond in a similar way to peak horizontal acceleration (shock) induced by an earthquake, Sitharam said.

The civil engineering department has embarked on microzonation of Bangalore city, to evaluate future seismic hazard of Bangalore.