The 3-day annual convention focused on advances in earthquake science and included a workshop on seismic microzonation. Over the 3 days, various sessions were held on topics such as earthquake precursors, lithospheric structure, seismic hazard assessment, and neotectonics. Eminent scientists from India and other countries like Italy presented their research. The workshop discussed experiences with microzonation studies and methodologies. Key recommendations included establishing a center of excellence on rare geological events and a forum to advance microzonation practices to better inform engineering and policy decisions. The event aimed to further research to reduce earthquake impacts through improved hazard assessment and risk management.

1. Report on
3rd Annual Convention
On
‘Advances in Earthquake Science’ &
‘Workshop on Seismic Microzonation’
Date: 4th – 6th January, 2014 Venue: Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar
Organized By: Supported By:

2. 2
INDEX
Table of Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................................... 3
The event ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Day 1 – 4th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 4
Plenary Session: ........................................................................................................................................ 5
List of speakers: .................................................................................................................................... 5
Dr. Walter Mooney: US.Geo.Soc ........................................................................................................... 6
Dr. P.K. Mishra: Director General, GIDM, Gujarat ................................................................................ 6
Prof. Harsh K. Gupta: Member, NDMA ................................................................................................. 6
Prof. B.K. Rastogi: Director General, Institute of Seismological Research ............................................ 6
Prof. Antonella Peresan: University of Trieste, Italy ............................................................................. 7
Honoring of eminent personalities: ........................................................................................................... 7
Session 1: Earthquake Precursors and Prediction Studies ..................................................................... 7
Session 2: Lithospheric Structure ........................................................................................................... 7
Day 2 – 5th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 8
Session 3: Seismic Hazard Assessment and Engineering Seismology ....................................................... 8
Session 4: Real Time Seismology and Seismicity Studies .......................................................................... 8
Session 5: Neotectonics: Tectonic Geomorphology, Paleoseismology, Seismotectonics .......................... 9
Seismic Microzonation Workshop: ............................................................................................................... 9
Session 1: Seismic Hazard Assessment ...................................................................................................... 9
Day 3 – 7th January, 2014 ........................................................................................................................ 9
Session 2: Experiences from Microzonation Studies in India .................................................................... 9
Session 3: Methodologies for Seismic Microzonation and Implication for Policy .................................... 9
Way forward: .............................................................................................................................................. 10

3. 3
Background
Earthquakes have been causing massive damages from historic times in India. Earthquakes do not directly kill people, but earthquake induced effects such as Ground Shaking, Ground displacement, Landslide, Liquefaction, Site effects, Flooding, Fire and Tsunami are responsible for killing people and causing massive damages.
With the current scientific knowledge, it is not possible to forecast the occurrence of earthquake with reasonable degree of accuracy in terms of size, time and space. (The only way to reduce earthquake hazards is to design our buildings and infrastructures to withstand these earthquakes.) Therefore it is necessary to take alternative preventive measures to reduce the loss of life and property due to large earthquakes. As per seismic zoning of the country, over 59% of India’s land area is under threat of moderate to severe seismic hazard.
One only possible way to reduce the intensity of calamity, if not to prevent it totally, is to classify terrenes in order of progressively changing intensity of seismicity highlighting the more vulnerable areas prone to damage by earthquakes. For this analysis, zoning of country into various parts (Macro Scale) and further in smaller regions (Micro-Scale) is necessary.
On a macro scale, the country is classified into various seismic zones based on already experienced and expected severity of earthquake shaking and history of seismicity.
Microzonation is a process that involves incorporation of geologic, seismologic and geotechnical concerns into economically, sociologically and politically justifiable and defensible land use planning for earthquake effects so that architects and engineers can site and design structures that will be less susceptible to damage during major earthquakes. Microzonation is subdivision of region into zones that have relatively similar exposure to various earthquake related effects.
The event The Institute of Seismological Research (ISR, Gandhinagar) along with The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM, Gandhinagar) and Indian Society of Earthquake Science (ISES) had organized 3rd Annual Convention on “Advances in Earthquake Science” followed by a workshop on “Seismic Microzonation”. Most eminent scientists and leading researchers from India and abroad graced this event.

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Day 1 – 4th January, 2014
Inaugural Session
List of Dignitaries Name Organization
Smt. Anandiben Patel
Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of Gujarat
Chief Guest
Mr. S.J. Haider, IAS
Secretory, Dept. of Science and Tech
Mr. Sanjay Prasad, IAS
Secretory, Labor and employment
Dr. Ranjeet Bannerjee
CEO, GSDMA
Dr. Harsh K. Gupta
Member, NDMA
Guest of Honour
Prof. R.K. Verma
ISM Dhanbad
Dr. Walter Mooney
US.Geo.Soc
Dr. Harinarayan
Director, GERMI
Dr. P.K. Banik
Director General, PDPU
Dr. B.K. Rastogi
Director General, ISR
Dr. P.K. Mishra, IAS (Retd.)
Director General, GIDM

5. 5
The event was inaugurated by Smt. Anandiben Patel, Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of Gujarat. Various other eminent scientists, professors and students were also present.
The Government of Gujarat conducted this event as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 summit and the event was supported by Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of Gujarat.
Smt. Anandiben Patel: Hon’ble Revenue Minister, Government of Gujarat
Chief Guest Smt. Anandiben Patel inaugurated the Convention with the release of an abstract volume of the convention on ‘Advances in Earthquake Science'. She congratulated the organizers for putting up such a grand event. She also wished good luck to all the participants, that at the end of the conference they can come up with constructive conclusions for the benefit of the mankind.
Plenary Session:
List of speakers:
Name Organization
Dr. Walter Mooney
US.Geo.Soc
Dr. P.K. Mishra
Director General, GIDM, Gandhinagar
Prof. Harsh K. Gupta
NDMA, New Delhi
Prof. B.K. Rastogi
Director General, ISR, Gandhinagar
Prof. Antonella Peresan
University of Trieste, Italy

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Dr. Walter Mooney: US.Geo.Soc
Topic: Need of the present Session and Workshop
Dr. Walter Mooney with the help of a video presentation, very effectively highlighted the need of the sessions on advances in earthquake sciences being conducted. He also gave impetus to the need of Microzonation studies. In his talk, he explained how the western countries like USA can take learning points from India, which has in its past experienced various earthquakes and related hazards.
Dr. P.K. Mishra: Director General, GIDM, Gujarat
Topic: Lessons of the Bhuj Earthquake 2001
Dr. P.K. Mishra in his lecture talked about the Bhuj Earthquake of 2001, which because of its geographical spread and severity caused problems and constraints in the immediate aftermath. He presented the scenario after the 2001 earthquake, of how a massive rescue and relief operation was undertaken with mobilization of human and material resources on an unprecedented scale.
He also focused on the formation of ‘Gujarat Disaster Management Act’ and how it laid a strong foundation for the Disaster Management Act-2005.
Prof. Harsh K. Gupta: Member, NDMA
Topic: Earthquake Scenarios for Himalayan Region
Prof. Gupta gave a talk on how active the Himalayan region has been in the past, lessons learnt and way forwards. He deliberated to create a more earthquake resilient society.
He also came up with an innovative idea of ‘State Disaster Response Force’ in the lines of ‘NDRF’.
He also complimented the Government of Gujarat for setting up state of the art institutions like GIDM and ISR.
Prof. B.K. Rastogi: Director General, Institute of Seismological Research
Topic: Earthquake Hazard Assessment at Different Scales by ISR
Prof. Rastogi in his talk focused on various studies by ISR related to seismic hazards. At international level, he talked about ‘Global Earthquake Model’ that ISR is working on with Italy and Germany amongst others. He also told about ISR help in ‘Probabilistic Seismic Hazard’ Map of India for BIS.

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Prof. Antonella Peresan: University of Trieste, Italy
Topic: Neo-deterministic definition of seismic and tsunami hazard scenarios by exploiting advanced e- infrastructures
Prof. Peresan illustrated the preliminary results from a joint cooperation project, aimed at definition of seismic and tsunami hazard scenarios in Gujarat region by means of Indo- European e-infrastructures, shifting the focus from classical probabilistic to innovative physically based approaches. She gave impetus to the overall goal of the collaboration to provide the community with advanced information for seismic and tsunami risk mitigation.
Honoring of eminent personalities:
1. Dr. Hari Narain (Posthumously), Former Director, NGRI
2. Prof. R.K. Verma (Retd.), ISM, Dhanbad
Session 1: Earthquake Precursors and Prediction Studies
Chairman: Prof. B.R. Arora, Division of Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi
Co-Chairman: Dr. P.N.S. Roy, ISM Dhanbad
No. of presentations: 25
Recognizing that earthquake precursory research holds key to earthquake prediction, research for precursors and their documentation has continued in different parts of the globe. In this session, various papers were presented by different national and international researchers. All the papers were based on their research on earthquake prediction studies. They focused on mathematical tools to isolate precursory signature in real time, establishing their space time relation to earthquake cycle and highlighting strategies for integrating multi sensor data.
Session 2: Lithospheric Structure
Chairman: Dr. M. Ravi Kumar, CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad
Co- Chairman: Dr. Sumer Chopra, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi

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No. of Presentations: 9
Understanding of the Earth as a dynamic system has primarily evolved owing to development of new inclusive tools to probe in earth’s interior from crust to core, tremendous strides in acquisition of high quality data from dense observational networks coupled with enhanced computational power. Session focused on current knowledge of the deep structure, evolution and dynamics of stable continental interiors and actively deforming plate boundary regions in diverse tectonic settings by bringing together researchers from a wide variety of disciplines from active and passive seismology, GPS geodesy, geodynamics, geochemistry, magnetotellurics and mineral physics. The session centered on evolution of the Indian shield and its plate boundary regions like the Himalaya, Burma and Andaman arc regions. Day 2 – 5th January, 2014
Session 3: Seismic Hazard Assessment and Engineering Seismology
Chairman: Dr. Imtiyaz A. Pravez, CSIR-CMMACS, Bengalore
Co-chairman: Dr. P. Anbazhagan, IISC, Bengalore
No. of Presentations: 25
This session addressed seismologists, engineers and stake-holders with an aim to contribute in bridging modern interdisciplinary research and end-users, who have to cope with the problems of seismic risk management and earthquake disaster preparedness. Various advanced tools for seismic hazard assessment at a local scale were talked about like ‘Ground Motion Modelling’, ‘Source characterization and Simulation’, ‘Seismic Assessment of Bridges’ etc.
Session 4: Real Time Seismology and Seismicity Studies
Chairman: Prof. J R Kayal, ISR
Co- Chairman: Prof. Shamita Das, Univ. of Oxford, U.K.
No. of Presentations: 13
Aim of real-time seismology is to collect and analyze seismological data rapidly through a seismic crisis and utilize them for developing information on hazard, potential damage of large events, actual damage, and aftershock risk, with the aim of mitigating earthquake impact on human society. Before the main shock, the focus is on providing indications for an impending event by time dependent assessment of hazard and risk. The session explored the state of the art of this evolving technology and highlighted its application options in Indian context. Also risks associated with aftershocks were assessed.

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Session 5: Neotectonics: Tectonic Geomorphology, Paleoseismology, Seismotectonics
Chairman: Prof. V.C. Thakur, WIHG, Dehradun
Co-Chairman: Prof. S.K. Tandon, Delhi University, Delhi
No. of Presentations: 26
In this session, different papers were presented on problems of recent tectonic movements occurred in upper part of Tertiary (Neogene) and in the Quaternary, which played an essential role in the origin of the contemporary topography.
Seismic Microzonation Workshop:
This workshop primarily had discussions on assessing natural hazard and consequent risk due to earthquakes quantitatively. Salient topics of discussion were:
 Probabilistic vs. Deterministic methods of seismic hazard estimation
 Experiences/ sharing of learning of Microzonation studies by different agencies and by different Cities/States/ Countries
 Current methodologies of seismic Microzonation being practiced in India/ abroad
Session 1: Seismic Hazard Assessment
Chairman: Prof. C.V.R. Murthy, IIT Jodhpur
Co-Chairman: Prof. A. Peresan, Univ. of Trieste, Italy
No. of Presentations: 5 followed by a panel discussion Day 3 – 7th January, 2014
Session 2: Experiences from Microzonation Studies in India
Chairman: Prof. D.K. Paul, IIT Roorkee
No. of Presentations: 4 followed by a panel discussion
Session 3: Methodologies for Seismic Microzonation and Implication for Policy
Chairman: Dr. R. Bannerjee, GSDMA, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
No. of Presentations: 4 followed by a panel discussion

10. 10
Way forward:  Setting up ‘Centre for Rare Events’ at IIT-Gandhinagar: A Centre of Excellence to make engineers more aware on seismological hazards and advancements in Seismic research  Creation of a ‘think tank forum’ comprising of seismologists, geologists and engineers to devise more methodologies to bridge gap amongst the three  To form a forum to discuss on various perspectives of Microzonation  Microzonation should be taken into consideration seriously as it is much more effective, relevant and friendly in the days to come