Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Project to study seismic activities commissioned

— Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

New study: Cynthia Pandian, Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, inaugurating a seismological observatory in Tirunelveli on Friday.

TIRUNELVELI: Cynthia Pandian, Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, on Friday, inaugurated Centre-sponsored seismological observatories on the university premises here and also in eight schools in southern districts under KAN-SCOPE (Kanyakumari School Observatory Programme on Earthquakes).

KANSCOPE is a first of its kind programme in south India. Data collected in the eight centres will be transmitted to the master unit in the university for further analysis. As Kanyakumari terrain is prone to seismic hazards, the observatories have been established in two schools in Tuticorin, three in Kanyakumari, as many in Tirunelveli and one in Dindigul districts.

The objectives of this programme are to create earthquake awareness among school children, to analyse the data from the seismometer to interpret whether there will be any occurrence of earthquake in the near future, to detect sea level oscillations in the southern parts and to acquire huge amounts of digital data for future research in seismology.

After tsunami hit the coastline of Tamil Nadu, the Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India, sanctioned this research project to N. Chandrasekar, Head, Centre for Geo Technology, MSU, in 2007, to monitor the seismically active Achchankovil shear. The Centre is running a similar project in select schools in the seismically active northwest and northeast Himalayas.

So far, 55 broadband seismometers have been installed in NW and NE Himalayas and 100 school-level seismometers in the NE Himalayas.

By involving some of the higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu in the management of seismic network in India, it will lead to the creation of a network of low-cost seismic observatories to educate students in earth science. For implementation and management of such observatories, skill is required in physics, mathematics, earth sciences and particularly wave propagation, interpretation of seismic events, data processing and handling of software.

The school teachers will be gradually trained at the university on seismic techniques and taking readings from the imported electronic gadgets . The teachers in turn will train the children.

“Besides providing us the data required for analysis, this will also create a sense of responsibility and awareness for the school children and the society at large to avoid disaster due to earthquake in the southern most part of Tamil Nadu. Further, this project will lead to in-depth seismic research by the Centre for Geo Technology of the university,” said Dr. Chandrasekaran.

Dr. Cynthia Pandian and former principal of Kamaraj College, Tuticorin, Selvaraj, urged the students to make use of the hi-tech equipment to know about seismic activities.

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