The 1999 Chamoli earthquake occurred on 29 March 1999 in the Chamoli district

Chamoli District

Chamoli district is a district of Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by the Tibet region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar to the east, Almora to the south, Garhwal to the southwest, Rudraprayag to the west, and Uttarkashi to the northwest...

 in the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state of Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

 (now in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

). The earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 was the strongest to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than ninety years. Approximately 103 people died in the earthquake.

Cause

The Himalaya Range

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 has been undergoing crustal shortening along the 2,400 km long northern edge of the Indian Plate which resulted in the formation of several thrust planes including the Main Central Thrust (MCT), the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT). The MCT consists of three sub-thrusts: MCT I, MCT II and MCT III. Many earthquakes have occurred along these thrust faults. Academics believe the Chamoli earthquake in 1999 is associated with these fault systems.

Description

The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.8 on the Richter scale, and it lasted for forty seconds. Apart from the Chamoli district, the quake also affected five other districts of Uttar Pradesh viz. Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal, Bageshwar

Bageshwar

Bageshwar is a city and a municipal board in Bageshwar district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is also the administrative headquarters of Bageshwar district....

, Uttarkashi

Uttarkashi

Uttarkashi, meaning Kashi of the north, is a holy town in Uttarakhand, India. It is the district headquarter of Uttarkashi district. Uttarkashi is situated on the banks of river Bhagirathi at an altitude of 1352 m above sea level. Uttarkashi is home to a number of ashrams and temples and also to...

 and Pauri Garhwal

Pauri Garhwal

Pauri Garhwal is a district in Uttarakhand state of India. Its headquarters is at Pauri. Pauri Garhwal district is ringed by Haridwar, Dehradun, Tehri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Almora and Nainital districts from three sides. The southern boundary of Pauri Garhwal district touches with the...

 (all are in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

 now). Among these, Chamoli and Rudraprayag were the most affected districts. Aftershock

Aftershock

An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock...

s continued and most of the aftershocks occurred in the east of Chamoli. Officials from Pakistan reported that the quake was also felt in Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 and Gujranwala

Gujranwala

Gujranwala is a industrial city in the north-east of the Punjab province. It is the sixth largest city in Pakistan with a population of approximately 2,661,360 as on 24 June 2011...

. The earthquake was also felt in the Nanda Devi

Nanda Devi

Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country ; owing to this geography it was the highest known mountain in the world until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808...

 mountain region, in Kanpur, Shimla

Shimla

Shimla , formerly known as Simla, is the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of the British Raj in India. A popular tourist destination, Shimla is often referred to as the "Queen of Hills," a term coined by the British...

, Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, Dehradun

Dehradun

- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...

, Haridwar

Haridwar

Haridwar is an important pilgrimage city and municipality in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India...

, Saharanpur

Saharanpur

Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal Corporation in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Saharanpur District as well as Saharanpur Division...

, Moradabad

Moradabad

Moradabad is a city and a municipal corporation in Moradabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established in 1600 by prince Murad, the son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan; as a result the city came to be known as Moradabad. It is the administrative headquarters of...

, Bijnor

Bijnor

Bijnor variously spelt as Bijnaur and Bijnour, is a city and a municipal board in Bijnor district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India...

, Muzaffarnagar

Muzaffarnagar

Muzaffarnagar is a major city and a municipal board in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city was established in Mughal period by a Sayyid Jagirdar, Munawar Lashkar Ali, and so named in honour of his father, Muzaffar Ali Khan. It is the headquarters of the Muzaffarnagar district. It is a...

, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Srinagar

Srinagar

Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...

 and in the Baitadi District

Baitadi District

Baitadi district , historical name “Bairath” , a part of Mahakali zone, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Baitadi as its district headquarters, covers an area of 1,519 km² and has a population of 234,418. The Baitadi...

, Dadeldhura District

Dadeldhura District

Dadeldhura district, a part of Mahakali zone, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Dadeldhura as its district headquarters, covers an area of 1,538km² and has a population of 126,162....

, Darchula District

Darchula District

Darchula District of 121,996.The town has an Indian counterpart to its northwest, named Dharchula. The split between the two towns is just virtual as the traditions, culture, and lifestyle of the people living across both the regions are quite similar....

 and Kanchanpur District

Kanchanpur District

-Basic statistics:* District: Kanchanpur* Headquarters: Mahendranagar* Area: 1610 km²* Total Population: 377,899* Literacy rate: 57.60% -Political divisions:* Political constituencies: 4...

 in Mahakali Zone

Mahakali Zone

Mahakali|Kali River]] or Mahakali River, which originates from Kalapani.Mahakali's headquarter is Mahendranagar in Kanchanpur District. The zone covers the Himalayan range including Api Peak in the North, Hill valleys, Inner Terai valleys such as Patan in Baitadi District in the center and the...

 in Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

.

Damage and casualties

Severe ground deformations resulted from the earthquake. Formation of ground fissures were reported from many areas. Landslide

Landslide

A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...

s and changes in the groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

 flow were also reported. Well-developed ground cracks were seen in Gopeshwar, Chamoli and Bairagna. Cracks were observed in asphalt roads at several locations. Landslips cut off parts of Mandakini valley and Mandal valley and many major roads.

The death toll was 103. Several hundred people injured and approximately 50,000 houses were damaged. Over 2000 villages were affected by the earthquake. Electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

, water supply

Water supply

Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...

 and communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

 were also severely affected by the earthquake especially in the Chamoli town, Gopeshwar and Okhimath region of Rudraprayag district

Rudraprayag District

Rudraprayag district, is a district of Uttarakhand state of northern India. The district occupies an area of 2439 km². Rudraprayag town is the administrative headquarters of the district....

. According to Mike Wooldridge

Mike Wooldridge (Broadcaster)

Mike Wooldridge OBE is a world affairs correspondent for the BBC News. Mike spent his youth at Bournemouth School before joining BBC News in April 1970 as a sub-editor. He became a news reporter in 1978 and in 1982 he became the East Africa correspondent. In 1989 he moved to Johannesburg to become...

, correspondent for the BBC News

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...

, Chamoli suffered most damage and almost all the houses and shops built on slopes in the lower part of the town were destroyed.

The bridge deck of a pedestrian

Footbridge

A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...

 suspension bridge

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

 situated near Bairagna developed lateral buckling

Buckling

In science, buckling is a mathematical instability, leading to a failure mode.Theoretically, buckling is caused by a bifurcation in the solution to the equations of static equilibrium...

 and the cables of the bridge were loosened. Water pipelines in Chamoli and Gopeshwar towns were damaged affecting water supply due to landslides caused by the quake. The concrete-lined canals of the irrigation network in the affected region sustained some cracks.

In Delhi, many buildings sustained non-structural damage. According to Dr B.L. Wadhera, who filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court

Delhi High Court

The High Court of Delhi was established on 31 October 1966. The High Court of Delhi was established with four judges. They were Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. K. Kapur.-History:...

, cracks developed in the Shastri Bhavan in Delhi which houses several Union Ministries. Damage occurred in several buildings in Dehradun

Dehradun

- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...

 also. A few old buildings of the Survey of India

Survey of India

The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying. Set up in 1767 to help consolidate the territories of the British East India Company, it is one of the oldest Engineering Departments of the Government of India...

 sustained collapse of gable masonry, and cracks developed along the junctions between the pitched roof and the masonry walls.

Relief efforts

Rescue operations were hampered by landslides, loss of electrical power and the loss of communication links with Chamoli. Many road workers became involved to clear landslide debris from a 16 km stretch of road leading to the worst-affected area. Local people carried out search and rescue operations. Rescue efforts were led by the Indian Army

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

 and Paramilitary personnel were also called-in to aid. The army used helicopters to ferry in supplies. Food and other necessary supplies were air-dropped to villages which lacked motorable roads and where roads were damaged due to landslides. Locals organized a committee to make sure that those most affected receive food.