Catastrophic earthquake could decimate one of the most populated countries on earth
Last year, a severe earthquake struck Nepal and caused nearly 9, 000 deaths, leaving the whole world sad. Now scientists have reported that another Asian country is threatened by an even more potent earthquake: Bangladesh, the world's most densely populated nation with 157 million inhabitants.
Geologists have found evidence that a huge earthquake is forming far below the country and could reach magnitudes ranging from 8.2 to 9 degrees on the Richter scale, directly affecting more than 140 million people. "We don't know how long it will take, since we don't know how much time has passed since the last major earthquake in the region, " said researcher Michael Steckler of Columbia University, New York.
According to Steckler, the catastrophe may be imminent or take up to 500 years, but is being "engineered" by the Indiana and Probe tectonic plates. As there are few historical geological records in the region, scientists believed that only minor tremors could occur as a result of the horizontal sliding of these plates. However, a study that lasted 13 years showed that the scenario is far more threatening.
First continental subduction zone
Bangladesh is over a subduction zone, which means the Indiana plate is pushing the Probe down at a rate of 17mm per year. The worst earthquakes in the world happened in those areas, such as what killed 230, 000 people in 2004 and what caused the tsunami in Japan in 2011.
Typically, these subduction zones are found in the oceans, which makes the study even more worrying: Bangladesh is the first continental, and when the quake strikes, it can throw bits of land between 5 and 30 meters in the worst case scenario. imagined by geologists.
To complicate matters further, this unstable zone is under the Ganges and Brahmaputra delta, which can turn the entire region into quicksand if the earthquake strikes at full strength. Despite all this fuss, scientists still say it is early to create panic: although the data is reliable, it was collected for only 13 years, which is geologically a very short time.
Alert and new studies
Even so, the survey serves as a warning to Bangladesh, which is overcrowded in all its regions. Power plants, natural gas fields and heavy industries are well on the way to where the earthquake could be most intense, which could do even more damage to the country.
Scientists believe Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with nearly 13 million people, could be wiped off the map and become an abandoned city. Bengali geologist Syed Humayun Akhter points out that his country is not at all prepared for a catastrophe of this magnitude. However, it may be smaller than expected if only part of the 250 km long subduction zone collapses.
The next stage of the research is the installation of 70 seismographs in Myanmar, neighboring Bangladesh. The idea is to gather more accurate data about what is happening below the surface of one of the most populated regions of the planet, in order to try to create strategies that minimize damage when disaster strikes.
