What percentage of India's land is vulnerable to earthquakes?

What percentage of India's land is vulnerable to earthquakes? Correct Answer ∼ 57%

An earthquake is the shaking of the Earth's surface caused by a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere which causes seismic waves.

Key Points

  •  According to the seismic zoning map of the country, India is divided into four seismic zones.
  • The four seismic zones in the area are Zone-V (Very High Risk), Zone-IV (High Risk), Zone-III (Moderate Risk), and Zone-II (Low Risk). 
  • Earthquakes of various intensities strike 57 % of India's landmass.
  •  The entire Himalayan belt is thought to be vulnerable to large earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 8.0 on the Richter scale.
  • According to government data, the majority of earthquakes occurred in the Himalayan arc region, IndoMyanmar region, and Andaman-Nicobar region.

​Therefore, India's land is vulnerable to earthquakes is 57%. 

Additional Information

  • ​The circum-Pacific seismic belt, the world's largest earthquake belt, runs along the Pacific Ocean's rim. ​
  • According to the Geological Survey of India (GSI), India's largest flood-prone zones cover over 12.5 per cent of the country.​

Confusion Points

  • The government told the Lok Sabha that seismic monitoring suggests that 59 per cent of India is vulnerable to earthquakes​

Related Questions

In the question given below,three paragraphs are given, which arejumbled. Find the correct sequence ofthese paragraphs so that they form ameaningful passage.
A. Climate change is warming the ocean,but its warming land faster and thatsreally bad news for air quality all overthe world, says a new University ofCalifornia, Riverside study. The study,published February 4 in Nature ClimateChange, shows that the contrast inwarming between the continents andsea, called the land-sea warmingcontrast, drives an increasedconcentration of aerosols in theatmosphere that cause airpollution. Aerosols affect the climatesystem, including disturbances to thewater cycle, as well as human health.They also cause smog and other kinds ofair pollution that can lead to healthproblems for people, animals, andplants.
B. To determine this, the researchersran simulations of climate change undertwo scenarios. The first assumed abusiness-as-usual warming model, inwhich warming proceeds at a constant,upward rate. The second model probeda scenario in which the land warmed lessthan expected. In the business-as-usualscenario, enhanced land warmingincreased continental aridity and,subsequently, the concentration ofaerosols that leads to more air pollution.
C. A robust response to an increase ingreenhouse gases is that the land isgoing to warm faster than the ocean.This enhanced land warming is alsoassociated with increased continental
aridity. The increase in aridity leads todecreased low cloud cover and less rain,which is the main way that aerosols areremoved from the atmosphere.