xc Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S. , XII. 



earthquakes in Shillong, Dharmsala and Messina show that 

 seismic activity is continuing in our time. This is in fact one 

 of the zones of the Earth, along which earthquakes occur most 

 frequently. 



In the last 300 years 64 destructive earthquakes are 

 known to have occurred in India l : there may have been 

 others of which there is now no record. Of the 64 violent 

 Indian Earthquakes 58 have occurred along the Indus-Ganges 

 zone. These may be grouped as follows : 



Assam- Bengal. . 



Outer Himalayas 



Northern Punjab and Kashmir 



Southern margin of Gangetic plain 



On tch and Sind 



20 



11 



17 



4 



6 



Total . . 58 



If we consider the whole zone from Bengal to Sicily, we 

 find from Milne's catalogue that the numbers of destructive 

 earthquakes since 1615 can be grouped as follows : 



India 



Mesopotamia and Syria 



Eastern Mediterranean 

 Italy 



■ « 



• « 



58 

 2S 



116 



482 



In the last 300 years a destructive earthquake has occurred 

 in Northern India on an average once in every 5 or 6 years. 



From Lob Nor to the Black Sea. 



Let us now glance to the north of the long mountain zone 

 that extends from China to France. You will see north of 

 Tibet there is the large inland basin of Lob Nor ; then here are 

 the low-lying plains of the Oxus ; then come the Caspian and 

 Black Seas. Now all four of these depressions are believed to 

 be subsidences of the Earth's crust. South of the line of 

 mountains we see a long continuous trough : north of the line 

 of mountains we find not a continuous trough, but a series of 

 separate depressions. Now these depressions are separated 

 from one another by fragments of mountain ranges which once 

 ran parallel to the Himalayan-Alpine trends. Here you see 

 the Pamirs. The high Pamir plateau consists of parallel ranges 

 running east and west. The eastern and western continua- 

 tions of the Pamir ranges seem to have foundered into the 

 abyss, those on the east have fallen into Lob Nor, those on 

 the west into the Oxus depression. 



i 



Milne's Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes. 



