On 10 January 2023 at Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Photo Credit: PTI
CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) Senior Principal Scientist Anand K. Sending a nine-member team under the leadership of Pandey. Joshimath town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand Where in the last few days, cracks have appeared in many buildings and the ground has started sinking, due to which the people who came in panic are in shock.
The team will undertake an extensive sub-surface mapping of a three kilometer area of the affected city to understand the soil layers, rock composition and underground water flow. “Our heavy equipment will leave by road and in two days we will reach the site. We expect to complete the work in two weeks and submit a report to the government.
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CSIR-NGRI has been conducting extensive research on seismic activity, landslides, bursting of glacial lakes etc. in the Uttarakhand region with sophisticated measuring instruments placed at remote locations for some time. Still, senior scientists are reluctant to speculate on what may be causing the current sinking of houses and cracks in structures.
“This has happened earlier as well, but the number of houses and affected people is more now. We have to first do a survey and check whether there is water saturation in the area which is mostly formed in flat land by landslides. The city is situated on a hill slope in the high Himalayas. There is no doubt that there has been a lot of construction activity including high-rise buildings and major infrastructure projects, but we cannot say that it has led to the present situation.
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In between tests, the NGRI team will send a high voltage electricity into the soil with the help of a generator. “It will send electrical waves around which can be seen by the recorder. The received signals will be modeled for the presence of soil and water as we will get a 3D picture.
The senior scientist said ground-penetrating radar and multi-channel assessment of seismic waves (MASW) would be used to study the bedrock, besides field survey of the developed geology and ground cracks in the region for a comprehensive analysis.