3.3. Earthquakes in the Islamic period very near the surface.

Between Muhammadabad and Tighdar and south of Qal'eh Kuhneh, the ground slumped and mud was ejected from cracks. Muhammadabad was rebuilt about 500 metres to the north of its old site and many of the settlements that were ruined were abandoned. The shock was strongly felt in Birjand and Qayin and it was perceptible in Turbat-i Haidariyyeh. 1945 November 27 ltlakran In the early hours of 28 November (local time) the Makran coast of Pakistan was L\qq( -i\r shaken by one of the largest earthquakes of this century (/a = 8.1). Fortunately the region affected, between Karachi and the Persian borders, is singularly sparsely populated with only three small coastal towns, i.e. Ormara, Pasni and Gwadur, which are devoid of any engineered structure, most buildings consisting of mat huts and one-storey adobe houses.3m Pasni is an open roadstead and port of about 2000 inhabitants, built on a sandbank connecting the headland of Zarin wilh the mainland. The earthouake

89

Ambraseys & Melville, 1982

destroyed eighty per cent of the houses, killing about forty-five people. The telegraph building and the few better built official buildings were rendered unusable. A part of the town was involved in a submarine slide which submerged a zone along the shore so that the coast today is about 100 metres inland.3z Ormara (see figure 3.47) is a smaller port on sand where sixty per cent of its houses, mainly of adobe construction, collapsed killing about twenty people. The shock caused many landslides and rockfalls along the steep bluffs south of the town. In places the ground slumped and it was flooded by a sudden rise of the underground water table. Between Ormara and Pasni, a distance of about 120 kilometres, there are very few settlements of grassmat huts, which suffered little or no damage. Further to the west Sur (Sor) was damaged and in the port of Gwadur some houses were ruined without casualties. However, to the north of Gwadur. over the hills in the Akara-Jawar region, the ground was broken up and huge cracks ran along the north-facing slopes of the ranges of hills for a

Figure 3.47.A.D. 1945(27 November), Makran. \ g ( et t u

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90

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an at and a largevolume of gasignited,causing eruption distance. The shockcaused damage no considerable the glow of which could be seenfrom a greatdistance. Jiwani or further west alongthe coastat Chahbahar, alongthe Makran,both inland and offMud volcanoes wherethe ruins of the old fort locatedabout two kiloshore,do occur under norrnalconditionsand they metresfrom Tiz, to the north, and constructedor at of shouldnot be considered evidence the severityof as leastrenewedin the early 1870s,werenot affectedby the shock.3u the shock;nor wasits stone masonryten-metrehigh cable The earthquake damagedthe trans-oceanic tower affected.As a matter of fact, alongthe Makran between India and Great Britain, which broke in eight coastwest of Jiwani and eastof Sonmiani,the earthplacesoff the Makrancoast,presumably due to subquakewasnot felt very strongly and it wasnot permarinelandslides triggeredby the shock.3BThe land was ceptiblebeyond Karachiand Dadu.The earthquake lines between Pasniand Karachi also broke down. alsofelt as a slight shockat Muscat.In contrast,to the There were substantialground failures at Pasniand northeast of Pasniit was felt as far as Montgomery and Ormara.About five kilometresto the north of the latter, Dera Ismail Khan in the Punjab,more than 1000 kilothe ground slumped, forming tensile fracturessixty metresaway. Damage wasreportedfrom Panjgur,Bela wide running in an east-west direction with centimetres and from the Barkhan Tehsil of the Loralai Agency, the south side downthrown by more than 1.5 metres. wherecasualties were alsoreported.3z Thereis no Though there are previousreports (Sondhi 1947) ot undue concernin Penian evidence that the shockcaused in uplift at Pasni,tectonic changes elevation were estabterritory.3B lished only in the Ormara area,where the land rose The total number of peoplekilled in this earthand marine quakedoesnot seemto haveexceeded about two metres.Older raisedbeaches 300. This figure terraceswere observedalong the whole Makran coast, includesthosedrowned by the seismic sea-wave (tsunami)that accompanied eventand which added from Karachi to Jask,and radiocarbon and uraniumthe indicate the thorium dateson shellsfrom thesebeaches significantly to the overall damagecausedby the main wereelevated beaches during the last l0 000 years, shock.At leastthree wavesfollowed the earthquake, of attestingto numerouspast earthquakes comparable to which the first (noticed shortly after the shock) did not the 1945event. come very far inland. The other two followed 90 to 12O Aftenhocks continuedfor sometime. On 2 minuteslater, around 5.00 a.m., and swept over the onegreatdamage January 1946 Pasniwasagaindamaged, and on 5 August storey houses Pasniand Ormara,causing at heightsof five to ten metreson shore.At and reaching 1947 another shock in the eveningruined many houses Jiwani the waves sanka dhow and at Gwadur drowned In at Pasni. the Kulanch the ground slumped,ejecting three people.Elsewhere the Makrancoastthey on water from cracks. Rockfalls were noticed from the destroyed sailingvessels, littered the land with debris mountainsand landslides occurredalongthe coastto the and silted up streams. Karachi,360 kilometresaway, At west of Pasni.The shock waswidely felt. had a height on land of about 1.5 metres,but the waves 1947 September Dustabsd.In the morning a destructive 23 they persistedfor such a long time that they caused aLZSearthquakein the sparselypopulated region of Daulata(e bad, southeast Firdaus(Tun), demolished number damage the harbour works and lossof life around to of a Keti Bandaron the coastof the Indus delta. There, killing about 400 people.Dustabad of villages was during the recessionof the wavesand the rapid drawtotally destroyedand 170 peoplewere killed. Half of down of the water that followed during the strongebbMuhammadabad, rebuilt after the earthquake 1941, of ing of the sea,low-lying hills collapsed and spreadout, collapsed and heavydamage with casualties extendedto totally destroyinga number of fishingvillages between the dihistansof Sarayan, Charmehand Badamuk.To the Dubbo and Jadiwari,causing west and southwestof Daulatabad many casualties. the In and for tens of kiloregion of Bombay,more than I 100 kilometresaway metres,the areawasin 1947 totally uninhabited,while from Pasni,waves to the south there is nothing more than the clay flats of reached heightsof up to two metres, Daqq-iMuhammadabad the Shikasteh-yi causing somelossof life. At Karwar,about 1500 kiloand Muhammadabad. only man-made The metresaway, wavesflooded creeksand inlets. At Muscat structures there (a few rubble-stone the shock was followed by a very hieh tide and at Mahe housesandab-anbars) werelevelled with the ground (figure 3.48). in the Seychelles, 3400 kilometresaway,waveheights The earthquake reachedabout thirty centimetres. wasassociated with a complex Thereis no inforsystemof faulting. Ground fracturesreportedby local mation about the effectsof the waves the Persian in people,their tracestill visiblein a number of localities, Gulf,3? but in the Arabian Seaat least onedhow on its can be followed for about twenty kilometresin a way from Muscatto Karachiwassunk with casualties.3Ts Following the earthquake, N-350o-Edirection,from west of Kuh-i Qirmiz, cutting four largemud volcanoesrose near the shore eight to thirty metres across westslopeof Kuh-i Chargraqsh extending the and abovewater,sevento thirteen metresdeepand emitting to the north as far as the eastflank of Chang-iKulagh. gas,but they weresoon erodedby the sea.36Also Beyondthis point the traceis no longervisibleon the inland, the mud volcanoes ground,but according local information it extended near Hinglaj werere-activated to

3.Earthquakesin the Islamic period

across pedimentbetweenDustabad the and the settlement of Istakhr. From Kuh-i Qirmiz to Kuh-i Chargraqsh the zone of fractures is in late Eocenevolcanics(plates l7 and l8). In places consists en echeloncracks, it of (plate l9) someof them open and erodedinto sinkholes bearing N-25o-E,and elsewhereof crushedzoneswith the west side downthrown by thirty to eighty centimetres.Two exposures gullies suggest in right-lateral movementof at leastone metre. In the plain, betweenDustabad and Sarayan and also between Tighab and Tighdar, the ground slumped and qanats were blocked. A seriesof scarpsbetween Badamuk and Gurab striking N-l40o-E, mosfly in conglomerates,as well as between Turshab and Hauz Qal'eh Kuhneh south of Muhammadabad, were attributed to this earthquakeby the local people.

9I The shock was widely felt, causingpanic in Qayin, Bushruyehand Birjand, and it was perceptible in Ravar and Mashhad.It was followed by numerous aftershocks that lasted for about six months, causingadditional damage,particularly in the region of Charmeh andatfr7
Sarayan.3D

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of a 1948Julv 5 Gauk.Latein the afternoon 14Tir 1327, hll.ta

strongearthquake was felt in the provinceof Kirman.l @ lle Publisheddetails of the damageit causedare lacking, I Q Zs but local information indicatesthat the few settlemenls n 9 6 1 O i- the sparselypopulated dihistan of ^^,,L ,t;h;.,-^r Gauk *,^-^ -,r--l were in +L- -a^*ar.r *^*,,r^+-r { re It is allegedthat the earthquakeoriginated ir th.';;;T Dau Shah mountains north of Gauk and triggered I zg falls from the mountains to the northeast of Malik ?.t Tirkan. The shock was strongly felt as far as Bam and I oa23

(Ittilo'at Kirman 1327, 6684). Sikunj, strocf no. At ttre