|
The disastrous earthquake of Bihar-Nepal occurred on 15 January, 1934. About 190 miles long and irregular width exceeding 40 miles area is known as the slump belt which is having an isoseismal of intensity IX-X. The chief criterion adopted in the demarcation of the belt was the behaviours of buildings and other structures. These tilted and slumped bodily into the alluvium, but seldom tumbled brick from brick. Sinking was often differential, in proportion to the relative pressures of the parts of building per unit area.
|
|
Subsidence of roads causeways and railway embankments were marked, in some cases embankments originally 6 feet high sank down leveled with the surrounding country. Tanks, lakes, borrow pits and other depressions became noticeably shallower as a result of uplift of their bottoms - the tendency on the whole was for elevations and depressions to approach to a common level. Fissuring and emission of sand and water reached their maximum development along this belt. The damage to buildings along this belt is in contrast to that of the area between Muzaffarpur and Dharbhanga, where houses were razed to the ground (Richter, 1958). Based on felt reports the maximum MM intensity assigned is and its epicentral location is
|
