SESRL

India's First Seismo Electromagnetic Research Laboratory

India is prone to variety of natural hazards that include floods, draughts, cyclones, landslides and earthquakes which cause wide-spread death and destruction almost every year. While sophisticated techniques have been developed for prediction of many of these hazards, earthquake is the one for which no reliable technique has been developed till today with the result there are huge losses of life and property caused by earthquakes. Of the thirty major earthquakes that have cumulatively caused about hundred thousand fatalities in the Indian subcontinent in the past two centuries, more than half have occurred in the past forty years, and more than half of these recent events have occurred within the Indian plate itself. Considering the complexity of earthquake hazards, the Government of India has given top priority for research and development in this area through special shells created in the Department of Science and Technology and Indian Meteorological Department.

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the study of electromagnetic phenomena associated with earthquakes (broadly known as the phenomena of Seismo-Electromagnetics) by monitoring electromagnetic emissions in broad frequency range between DC to HF using ground and satellite based techniques. The Phenomena of Seismo-electromagnetism has been supported by laboratory experiments employing rock fracturing and convincing evidences of such emissions have been found on the ground and in the ionosphere. The precursory characteristics of such emissions have also been established by careful observations during major earthquakes. Thus, the study of Seismo-electromagnetics opens a new area of studying electro-dynamical processes taking place in the earth’s crust and forms a new technique in the field of earthquake prediction.