Book Review: The Earth's Resonance – The Story of Indian Earthquakes: The Earth Beneath India's Feet

It’s not every day that someone feels grateful for an earthquake. Arch Johnston, a seismologist at the University of Memphis, and a team of other specialists were in the Rann of Kutch, studying the aftermath of the 2001 earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat, when another quake struck. “We saw Arch struggling to balance his tall frame, yet clapping his hands, laughing out loud, and shouting ‘thank you,’” write scientists C. P. Rajendran and Kosala Rajendran in their book, The Roaring Earth: The Story of India’s Earthquakes. Such short stories are common in this brief history of earthquakes, and it’s extraordinary because it comes from an Indian perspective.

A homeless family in a makeshift tent in Bhuj, Gujarat. | Image credit: Getty Images

The book, which brings together their decades of studies, attempts to unravel the mystery of earthquakes: What makes them so difficult to predict? Why are some areas more prone to earthquakes than others? Is loss of life and property inevitable in the aftermath of an earthquake? Can knowledge of an area’s earthquake history make predictions of future earthquakes more accurate? What are aftershocks, foreshocks, plate tectonics, P waves, and S waves?

Students in Amritsar light candles to pray for Türkiye after the 2023 earthquake. | Image credit: Getty Images

mysterious ways

The answers to these questions form the heart of the book, dispelling some of the mystery surrounding earthquakes. The basic principles of astronomy, biology, and chemistry can be understood through their visible characters—the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, minerals. Earth science is relatively mysterious because the events take place underground, unseen, and involve gigantic bodies that gradually move over the ages and cause catastrophic changes.

A woman collects water from a tap near a collapsed wall of a residential building in Guwahati, after a powerful earthquake struck Assam state in 2021. | Image copyright Getty Images

The unexpected shock that can strike at any time, sometimes accompanied by death and destruction, is linked to the same forces that slowly pushed a large independent island near Antarctica, which we know today as the Indian subcontinent, to eventually collide with Eurasia and form the Himalayas.

Sand sculpture by Indian artist Sudarshan Patnaik on Puri beach in Bhubaneswar, after the earthquake that struck Turkey in 2023. | Image credit: Getty Images

It wasn’t until the decade after man landed on the moon that earth scientists were able to prove the theory that explained these connections. The continents and oceans were not fixed, but rested on “plates” that were constantly moving and floating on a layer of molten rock. Plate tectonics, as the theory is called, explains the formation of continents, volcanic activity, tsunamis, and the intensity and timing of earthquakes. Because of plate tectonics, India is anxiously anticipating a major Himalayan earthquake (or two) but, unfortunately, its exact timing and location cannot be predicted. This was after scientists Roger Bilham, Vinod Gaur and Peter Molnar published a paper in Science in 2001 in which they found that a 700-kilometre-long stretch of the Himalayan plate boundary had not produced a major earthquake in the past 500 years. All the pressures accumulated over the centuries will inevitably lead to displacement that will cause “unprecedented damage” in parts of northern India, especially the Gangetic plains. The Rajendrans describe their own journeys into the Himalayas to decipher evidence of past earthquakes.

A survivor searches for belongings amid the rubble of her damaged home following an earthquake in Nepal in 2023. | Image credit: Getty Images

Archaeoseismology, as this endeavor is called, involves the study of ancient structures such as ancient temples or land formations that may reveal signs of past earthquakes and help estimate the likelihood of future earthquakes.

Killari earthquake, Maharashtra, 1993. | Image credit: Getty Images

Damage control

While the vast majority of earthquakes worldwide occur along plate junctions, there are other types as well. For example, the 1993 Killari earthquake in Maharashtra, or the 1967 Koyna earthquake, which was associated with the filling and emptying of a reservoir, are examples of large earthquakes that are not associated with plate boundary dynamics. While predicting large earthquakes remains a global mystery, what is better known are ways to minimize the damage.

Signs in the Chilean city of Dechato direct residents to evacuation routes in case of a tsunami. | Image credit: Getty Images

Chile, the book notes, is a country that is frequently rocked by major earthquakes but reports little damage, thanks to strict enforcement of building codes—a lesson largely ignored by Indian building ethics. India’s diverse geography and history suggest that many mysteries remain. The Rajendrans say Dr. Johnston probably jumped for joy when he saw an earthquake in the Rann of Kutch, a significant place in geological history. This great desert was once not only an expansive sea, but also the site of an extraordinary earthquake in 1861 that created a 2- to 4-kilometer-high barrier, called Allah’s Dam, that today extends into Pakistan.

The discovery that the Earth’s surface can be deformed by earthquakes was described by Charles Lyell, the 19th-century founder of geology, as “a watershed moment in the history of geology.” The Rajendrans suggest that geoscientists must take on the task of educating society about new developments in the field.

The Earth's Resonance: The Story of India's Earthquakes; C.P. Rajendran, Kosala Rajendran, Vintage/Penguin, Rs. 699.

Jacob [email protected]

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