A culture at risk: an initial assessment of seismic vulnerabilities in Upper Dharamsala, India
A team assembled by GeoHazards International (GHI) conducted an initial assessment of earthquake vulnerabilities in Dharamsala, India from September 2-5, 2006, with funding from the Flora Family Foundation. Dharamsala is located in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains,in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Numerous massive earthquakes leading to significant damage and loss of life have occurred on faults along the front of the Himalaya Mountains, which stretch from Pakistan to Burma. Earth scientists believe enormous earthquakes with magnitudes of 8.0 to 8.5 are overdue on several large sections of these faults. The most recent Himalayan earthquake, a magnitude 7.6 temblor in Kashmir in October 2005, was significantly smaller than the overdue earthquakes but still killed approximately 75,000 people in Pakistan and India. The Dharamsala area is vulnerable to a similar level of devastation from a large earthquake.
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