No NASA quake forecast

New Delhi (Agencies): The NASA has made no earthquake forecast for India, the Union government said on Sunday and asked people to ignore text messages with a "fake" prediction of a strong quake to hit north India.

"It is fake. The NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) cannot predict earthquakes. Such messages are only seeking to create panic among people," a seismologist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Scotching the rumours, the IMD said the Indian government had received no such intimation from the US. "No country can predict earthquakes. The technology has not advanced so much as yet. There is some research going on in China, but even they have not reached any substantial result," the official said.

Purported as a NASA forecast, a text message doing the rounds among mobile phone users in parts of India reads: "North India will face next earthquake at 8.06 pm... The next (Richter) scale of earthquake will be 8.2. News from NASA. Plz forward message as much as u can." Panicked, people on Sunday called up media houses to check the veracity of the message.

Albeit, experts warn India next

In the wake of the strong 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on Saturday, experts said a temblor of equal intensity is "overdue" in northern India." "An earthquake of the same magnitude is overdue. That may happen either today or 50 years from now.

In the region of the Kashmir, Himachal, Punjab and Uttrakhand. Seismic gaps have been identified in these regions," B K Rastogi, Director-General of Ahmedabad-based Institute of Seismological Research, said.

This is because the movement of tectonic plates generates stress over time, and rocks at the surface break in response. When the stress accumulates, every 100 km stretch of the 2,000-km-long Himalyas can be hit by a high-magnitude earthquake.

"The accumulation of stress is going on everywhere. But where it will reach the elastic limit, we don`t know nor also when. But what we do know is that it is happening everywhere," Rastogi added. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Saturday`s quake, measuring 6 on the Richter scale in Delhi, had a depth of 10 km and its impact lasted up to one minute.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was in Nepal`s Lamjung district some 75 km from Kathmandu. The aftershocks were felt even half-an-hour after the quake and some lasted till evening.

Rastogi said that the earthquake uplifted the rocks by four meters, rupturing an area 100 km long and 50 meters wide of the epicentre. Scientist PR Vaidya at the IMD here said Nepal falls on the Alpine-Himalayan belt, one among the three seismic belts on the Earth`s surface, which is responsible for 10 percent of the world`s earthquakes.

The Apline-Himalayn belt, which is prone to high-intensity earthquakes, runs through New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and northeast India, from where it turns to Nepal and then to Jammu and Kashmir, up to Afghanistan and the Mediterranean Sea. It finally ends in Europe.

The world`s greatest earthquake belt, the circum-Pacific seismic belt, is found along the rim of the Pacific Ocean, where about 80 per cent of the world`s largest temblors occur. Rastogi said within the 40-km-range of the epicentre, the scale of damage has been very high, with a total collapse of buildings.

The aftershocks, he added, would be felt for two days in case of a "strong" earthquake" of about magnitude 8. Scientist Vaidya said: "Earthquakes happen because of the theory of plate tectonics, which means with the movement of tactonic plates, stress in generated in the rocks."

Aftershocks trigger panic; Toll 2350

Kathmandu (PTI): Racing against time, rescuers on Sunday waded through tonnes of rubble of flattened homes and buildings in Nepal to look for survivors of the earthquake that has killed over 2,350 people, including five Indians, and left more than 6,000 others injured.

Fresh powerful aftershocks on Sunday triggered panic among the people and caused avalanches on Mt Everest which had on Saturday taken a toll of 22 lives. A strong 6.7-magnitude aftershock followed by another measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale, sent people scrambling for open spaces.

The 7.9-magnitude temblor yesterday left a trail of devastation and suffering, with people spending the cold night in the open because of fears of fresh quake. India has mounted a major rescue and rehabilitation effort, deploying 13 military aircraft which carried medicines, field hospitals, blankets, 50 tonnes of water and other materials. More than 700 disaster relief experts drawn from the National Disaster Relief Force have been deployed by India.

An Indian attempting to climb all the highest peaks in the seven continents, 54-year-old Ankur Bahl is also stuck at Camp II on Mount Everest along with 11 other fellow climbers. Bahl had moved to Camp II from Camp I but is now stranded due to the earthquake. According to initial reports related to aftershock, a tunnel caved in at the Trishuli Hydel Project and around 60 labourers are feared trapped.

Hospitals in Nepal are struggling to accommodate the number of injured that is running into thousands. People have been lying scattered on the floor and even on the ground outside and receiving treatment. Offers of help poured in from around the world following the Nepalese government's appeal for assistance.

The United States, Britain, China, Pakistan and European Union countries are among those who have pledged aid. A number of international charities including Red Cross, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Christian Aid are also sending teams to quake-hit areas.