The Assam Earthquake of 1950 drastically changed the morphology of Assam plains and it’s drainage system. It had a moment magnitude of 8.6 and hence was in the same league as the Great Chile Earthquake, with its magnitude of 9.5, ten years later or the Tohoku-oki quake off the coast of Honshu in 2011, for which the magnitude was determined to be 9.0.Figure 1: The Great Assam earthquake of 1950 destroyed the railroad bridge in the Lakhimpur district, cutting the main connection between Assam and the rest of the subcontinent. Some researchers say that the Assam quake of 1950 was a thrust quake while others argue that it was a strike-slip event similar to the quakes we get along most faults in California. Also called as Tibet earthquake or Medog earthquake, it was followed by thousands of aftershocks, most of which were of magnitude 6.0 or greater. 1950 August 15, India, Assam, 1526 deaths, magnitude 8.6, Surface faulting (p. The remains of villages, animals, including cattle and elephants and large quantities of timber floated down these raging waters. The depth of the earthquake was 205 km deep. On August 15, 1950, a massive earthquake of 8.6 magnitude hit Assam. Nearly all of these superquakes occurred along the rims of oceans, be it in the so-called Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean or along the Java and Sumatra trenches on the eastern reaches of the Indian Ocean. (from J. R. Kayal, 2010, doi:10.1080/19475701003625752) Landslides blocked several tributaries of the Brahmaputra. The earth cracked and opened up at many places. Instead this plate boundary under the most rugged mountains in the world is very complex, with sections of both plates thrusting under fragments from the other in a jumbled pattern.Figure 2: This map shows the major earthquake along the Himalayan front. The fish in them died. This M8.6 right-lateral, strike-slip, earthquake was widely felt over a broad area of central Asia, causing extensive damage to villages in the epicentral region. In the case of Chile it is the Nazca Plate which subducts under South America, in Alaska the Pacific Plate dives under North America and off the coast of Indonesia, the Indian Ocean plate vanishes at a steep angle under fragments of the Eurasian Plate. The quake was so strong that it caused huge landslides which in turn blocked many rivers in the mountainous region. Maximum intensity was reported in the Mishimi and Abor Hills of the Sadiya. The surface wave was felt throughout the entire north-eastern India and in many parts of eastern India.The Original Assam Information Portal, Since 2007.IS KO HINDI ME MERE MAIL ME SENT KI JIYE These rivers have changed their color and carried some sulphurous and other material which spread a horrible smell for some distance around them. People all over India were ready to celebrate their Independence Day, three years after Britain had released the subcontinent from its Empire. But it turned out that the Great Assam Earthquake, which struck 67 years ago today, was among the ten strongest quakes since seismic measurements began more than a hundred years ago. (hra143)The Assam quake, however, stands out amongst the biggest temblors which have shaken our planet. The epicenters of the two big quakes in Assam are on the right, labeled 1897 and 1950. 153.)
The National Highway was submerged for miles and with the Railway line got damaged. But at the end of the day, nobody in this border region where India, China, East Pakistan, and Burma met was in any mood to celebrate. In those regions an oceanic plate dives into the Earth's mantle under another plate carrying a continent. The 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake, also known as the Assam earthquake, occurred on 15 August and had a moment magnitude of 8.6. The earthquake was the tenth strongest earthquake in the world. The epicenter of the earthquake was Rima, a sparsely populated region in the Indo-China border. The largest instrumentally recorded Himalaya earthquake occurred on 15th August 1950 in Assam, eastern India.