The 1934 Nepal–India earthquake or 1934 Bihar–Nepal earthquake was one of the worst earthquakes in India's history. The towns of Munger and Muzaffarpur were completely destroyed. This 8.0 magnitude earthquake occurred on 15 January 1934 at around 2:13 pm IST (08:43 UTC) and caused widespread damage in northern Bihar and in Nepal.[1]
Earthquake
The epicentre for this event was located in eastern Nepal about Template:Convert south of Mount Everest.[2] The areas where the most damage to life and property occurred extended from Purnea in the east to Champaran in the west (a distance of nearly Template:Convert), and from Kathmandu in the north to Munger in the south (a distance of nearly Template:Convert). The impact was reported to be felt in Lhasa to Bombay, and from Assam to Punjab. The earthquake was so severe that in Kolkata, around 650 km (404 mi) from epicenter, many buildings were damaged and the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral collapsed.[3]
Ground effects
One noteworthy phenomenon of this earthquake was that sand and water vents appeared throughout the central vents of the earthquake area. The ground around these sand fissures subsided, causing more damage.[3] Extensive liquefaction of the ground took place over a length of 300 km (called the slump belt) during the earthquake, in which many structures went afloat.[4]
In Muzaffarpur, sand fissures erupted at several places in town. The wells were choked with sand, while water levels in tanks became shallower due to sand deposited in the tank beds. Most of the buildings in Muzzafarpur were damaged. All the kutcha (ramshackle) buildings collapsed, while other pukka (solidly built) buildings suffered damage due to sinking and cracking of the ground.[3]
Damage
The three major towns of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal—Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan—were severely affected and almost all the buildings collapsed. Large cracks appeared in the ground and several roads were damaged in Kathmandu; however, the temple of Pashupatinath, the guardian deity of Nepal, escaped any damage.[5]
In Sitamarhi, not a single house was left standing. In Bhagalpur district many buildings collapsed. In Patna, many buildings in the bazaar were destroyed and damage was particularly severe along the river.[3] In Rajnagar, near Madhubani, all the Kutcha buildings collapsed. The buildings of Darbhanga Raj, including the famous Navlakha Palace, were severely damaged.[5] In Jharia the earthquake led to further spread of underground fire.[6] The town of Birgunj was destroyed, along with its telephone line to Kathmandu.[7]
The number of deaths was 10,700 to 12,000[2][8] with 7,253 recorded in Bihar.[5]
A 1935 work by Major General Brahma Shamsher documenting the event, Nepalko Maha Bhukampa 1990, stated that this was Nepal's most destructive earthquake in living memory, and praised the Nepalese Army for its work in relief efforts.[7][9]
Aftermath
Mahatma Gandhi visited the Bihar state. He wrote that the Bihar earthquake was providential retribution for India's failure to eradicate untouchability.[10] Rabindranath Tagore took offence to the irrationality in his statement and accused Gandhi of superstition, even though he was totally in agreement with Gandhi on the issue of untouchability.[11][12] In Bihar, Sri Babu (Shri Krishna Sinha) and the other great leader Anugrah Babu (Anugrah Narayan Sinha), threw themselves into relief work.[13]
See also
- 1833 Bihar–Nepal earthquake
- 1988 Nepal earthquake
- April 2015 Nepal earthquake
- May 2015 Nepal earthquake
- List of earthquakes in 1934
- List of earthquakes in India
References
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedNGDC - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedGunn2007 - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedNasu - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedMurty - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBrett1935 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAminLinden1997 - ↑ 7.0 7.1 Dr. Bipin Adhikari. The Great Earthquake of 1934 Template:Webarchive. NewSpotLight Nepal News Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 22, 22 May 2015. Accessed 29 May 2015.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedUSGS - ↑ Rāṇā, Brahmaśamśera Jaṅgabahādūra, and Kesar Lall. The Great Earthquake in Nepal (1934 A.D.). 1st English edition. Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar, 2013. Template:ISBN
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChakrabarty - ↑ When Tagore accused Gandhi of superstition.
- ↑ Suggesting religious reasons for quakes isn't new: Mahatma Gandhi did that in 1934.
- ↑ So may India be great: selected speeches and writings of President R. Venkataraman{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India(1990)
Further reading
- Source dynamics of two great earthquakes of the Indian subcontinent: The Bihar-Nepal earthquake of January 15, 1934, and the Quetta earthquake of May 30, 1935. Seismological Society of America.
External links
- 1934 Mw 8.1 Bihar/Nepal earthquake 15 January 1934 – Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
- Intensity Map (Archived) – Amateur Seismic Centre
- Template:EQ-isc-link
Template:Earthquakes in India Template:Himalayan earthquakes Template:Earthquakes in 1934