A Massive Earthquake Changed the Course of the Ganges River One Day » Explorersweb

About 2,500 years ago, a massive earthquake struck the Indian subcontinent, forcing the Ganges River to change its course. The 2,575-kilometre-long river flows through northern India and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. Within days or weeks of the disaster, its exact course was changed to a new channel about 45 kilometres away. This happened near the delta, about 200 kilometres from the Bay of Bengal.

The Ganges River in Bangladesh, near where the river changed course 2,500 years ago. Photo: Shutterstock

change different path

Rivers often change their course as a result of repeated flooding or sediment buildup over the years. This often happens in deltas, but never before has it happened because of earthquakes.

Sediment usually builds up. As the river bed rises, the direction of the water changes. It's not a quick process. But sometimes a rapid shift in the course of a river, called a shift, can happen in a matter of days or weeks.

What happened to the Ganges was a unique, massive molting event. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before,” said Michael Steckler, one of the study’s co-authors.

The previously unrecorded earthquake measured between 7.5 and 8 on the Richter scale. It was so strong that, although its epicenter was 180 kilometers away, it rerouted a large part of the main channel.

Liz Chamberlain, the study’s lead author, and her colleagues were studying satellite images of the Ganges River when they noticed a 2-kilometer-wide crescent shape about 45 kilometers from the river. Upon closer inspection, the crescent was a depression in the ground, stretching for 100 kilometers and roughly parallel to the current river. The team believes it was the original main channel of the Ganges.

Although the old channel is no longer a river, it still regularly floods. Along the banks of the old channel, the researchers saw vertical lines of light-colored sand known as seismites. The violent shaking caused by the earthquakes compressed deep layers of sand and pushed them up through the mud, like sand volcanoes, creating lines 40 centimeters wide.

Earthquakes along the ancient riverbank. Image: Chamberlain et al., 2024

Another one coming?

The ancient riverbed contains many of these lines, suggesting that they all formed at the same time. Sediment analysis confirms that they are 2,500 years old.

There is no record of an earthquake in the area at this time.

A similar earthquake could happen again. Recent studies have shown that a huge fault hidden beneath the Ganges River Delta could trigger a massive earthquake that would affect 140 million people.

In the holy city of Varanasi, people pray and bathe in the Ganges River. Photo: Shutterstock

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