348 



NATURE 



[August io, 1893 



THE EARTHQUAKE IN BALUCHISTAN. 



'IP HE Records of the Geological Survey of India, May, 

 ■^ 1893, contains some notes on the earthquake in 

 Baluchistan on December 20, 1892, by Mr. C. L. 

 Griesbach, one of the Superintendents of the Survey. 

 The paper is illustrated by two photo-etchings, one of 

 which is here reproduced with the description of the 

 occurrence. 



The following quotation is from the report of the 

 Executive Engineer of the North- Western Railway at 

 Shalabagh : 



"On the 20th December, at 5.40 a.m. (Madras time),' 

 this district was visited by a somewhat severe earth- 



view showing distoition of rails caused by earthquake bslween Sanzal and Old Chaman. 



quake. It was followed by several lesser shocks, and at 

 Shalabagh - they continued at frequent intervals during 

 the day, and have occurred at frequent intervals up to 

 the present date.^ The exact time of the shock was 

 shown by the stoppage of a pendulum clock in my 

 office. 



"Effects at Sanzal.'^ — The station building at this place 

 has apparently suffered most, its close proximity to the 

 line of fissure, which runs in a north-east and south-west 

 line about half a mile below the station, being probably 



1 At Quetta the shoct: was felt at 5.46 a.m., the distance from Shalabagh 

 to Quetta being_53 miles in a straight line. 



2 Shalabagh is a station on the Sind-Peshin Railway at the eastern 

 entrance to the K(5jak tunnel. 



^ 22nd December. 



4 Sanzal is the first station on the western side of the Kdjak tunnel. 



the cause. The water tower is standing, but most of the 

 turrets are loose. . . . The oscillation of the ground 

 caused the water to spill out of the iron tanks. . . . 

 The station building, including the station-master's and 

 signaller's quarters and out-houses, are very badly shaken, 

 and will require rebuilding to a considerable extent. 

 The whole of the chimneys have been thrown down. 



'' Lower down the line the only serious damage to the 

 permanent-way occurred. There is visible at this spot 

 to the eye, for a considerable distance, as far indeed as 

 the eye can reach, a line of division in the soil, and 

 where this intersects the railway at an angle of about 

 15° or 20°, the metals of the permanent- way were distorted 

 in a most extraordinary way, the pairs of rails in each 

 line immediately above the crack in 

 the ground having suffered most. 

 They were bent into a sinuous curve, 

 which is represented approximately in 

 the accompanying illustration. 



" I have followed the line of fissure 

 in the surface of the ground for a con- 

 siderable distance on each side of the 

 line, and it extends beyond Old Cha- 

 man on the one side for several miles 

 I am told ; I myself followed it for 

 one mile beyond Old Chaman, and 

 could then see it extending far into the 

 distance. In the other direction, I am 

 informed by an Achakzai, who had just 

 come from there, it cuts the line of the 

 Khwaja Amran range obliquely, and 

 can be traced to the peak of that name, 

 some eighteen miles off. 



" There appears to have been a 

 shearing action on the surface of the 

 ground, the line of shear being tan- 

 gential to the line of cleavage. 



"The rails having resisted :his 

 motion were crumpled up in conse- 

 quence. The joints in the rails on 

 each side of the contortion have all 

 been closed up, although of course, 

 originally, clearance for expansion had 

 been left. 



" While tracing the crack in the 

 ground through Old Chaman, I found 

 that it crossed all the collecting pipes 

 of the Military Works Department at 

 Old Chaman. Most of these pipes 

 crossed the crack at approximately a 

 right angle and had not suffered, but 

 one \\ inch pipe which cut it obUquely 

 was pushed up and off the ground 

 and formed a sort of arch over the 

 crack. . . ." 



" A week after the earthquake," says 

 Mr. Griesbach, " I visited the Kojak 

 range in company of Mr. Hodson. We 

 first inspected the damage done by the 

 earthquake to the houses and works in the neighbour- 

 hood of Shalabagh station at the eastern entrance 

 of the Kojak tunnel. Though there was much mis- 

 chief done to buildings, &c., not much could be 

 learned from these effects of the earthquake. If the 

 scene of destruction had been in a closely-built town, 

 it might have been possible to detect some method, if I 

 might use the expression, in the damage done, but at 

 Shalabagh the houses are far apart, built on unequal 

 hilly ground, and the workmanship in the builiings, 

 mostly constructed of sun-dried bricks, is also very 

 unequal, so that all one can say is that the shocks of 

 earthquake have affected all the weak points of these 

 buildings, many of which will have to be entirely recon- 

 structed. 



NO. I 24 I, VOL. 48] 



