Drilling into the earth and earthquake research

Indian geologists are undertaking this task to enable them to have a greater insight into earthquake activity.

This experiment in the Konya region in Western India comes as a result of increased earthquake activity which is potentially related to the creation of reservoirs in the area; which increases water stress in the crust.

There is potentially a correlation between the increased earthquake activity in this area and the development of dams and reservoirs.  Konya has seen 22 earthquakes of magnitude 5-5.9 between 1967 and 2017 and the shallow depth suggests that this could be as a result of the stress caused by drilling out the area for the dam or due to the increased weight of water associated with the filling up of the reservoir.

Further evidence of this correlation comes from the Warna river area in the region.  A reservoir was built there in 1987 and in 1993 there was a magnitude 5 earthquake in the same area.

Geologists are hoping that they are able to discover more information about the frequency of earthquakes as they follow the example of seismologists at the San Andreas Fault in California who piloted the same project.

Questions have been asked as to whether the £56 million project is worth its cost, as despite increased awareness, predictions of such events are still unlikely to improve greatly.  Read more here