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Acatastrophic earthquake of magnitude 8 struck the Bhuj-Anjar-- Bhachau region of Kutch, Gujarat, in western India on the morning of 26 January 2001 (1). The earthquake epicenter (see the figure) was located at 23.326degN, 70.317degE, and its focal depth was up to 23 km. A conservative official estimate puts the number of human lives lost at 30,000 and the economic loss at US. $10 billion. News media estimates of the human lives lost exceed 50,000.
In the historic past, large but infrequent earthquakes have occurred in the western part of the Kutch region. In May 1668, all 30,000 houses of the town of Samaji (25degN, 68degE) on the Indus delta reportedly sank into the ground because of an earthquake with maximum damage intensity X on the 12-point Modified Mercalli (MM) scale. An earthquake of magnitude 8 occurred in the Great Rann of Kutch on 16 June 1819, forming a 90-km-long scarp with a height of up to 9 m. It came to be known locally as "Allah Bund" or "Wall of God." The earthquake claimed 1500 lives in Kutch and 500 in Ahmedabad. The last damaging earthquake in the region, the magnitude 7 Anjar earthquake of 21 July 1956, caused 115 deaths.
The epicenter of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake is located about 15 km northwest of Bhachau and 60 km east of Bhuj. The maximum damage was of MM intensity X in an area of 100 km by 60 km (see the figure). Total collapse of nonengineered houses and ground cracks of up to 1-m width were witnessed in the epicentral region. As expected, damage in river floodplains was much worse than in hard rock areas. In Ahmedabad, 250 km from the epicenter, many highrise buildings collapsed, possibly because of faulty design....