Earthquake in and around Dhaka city

I thank Dr. Badrul Imam of Dhaka University for his valuable remarks regarding the probabilities of earthquake in Bangladesh especially in Dhaka (in his article published in The Daily Star on July 15, 2016). Based on historical records and geological characteristics, I would like to give my own point of view regarding this calamity.

Even though Kathmandu sits almost on the main boundary thrust fault with many other faults in and around, a 8+ magnitude earthquake could not bring down high rise buildings made of concrete with iron structures (mostly old structures were destroyed). People were killed in thousands and not in millions there. Dhaka city is not situated on any of those kinds of proven geological faults. Considering the thickness of semi to consolidated sedimentary rocks (which is about 12 km) and infrastructure that were built during the last 50 years with modern technologies, the destruction, as revealed by the research, is not likely to be as devastating as we think.

I therefore request the residents of Dhaka city not to panic, especially when earthquake itself is a poorly understood scientific phenomenon, and cannot be properly predicted even with modern instruments and knowledge.