Met dept quake info misleading
Says expert
Information about earthquakes disseminated by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department was often misleading, says a seismic expert of Dhaka University.
“Seismic coverage of Bangladesh Meteorological Department is poor. As there is no seismologist in the department, meteorologists are doing the seismic job. As such, correct information is not available,” said Dr Syed Humayun Akhter, professor of Geology Department at Dhaka University.
Speaking yesterday he said the origin of the two tremors on September 10 were in Chandpur and Matlab areas, not in Gopalganj and Madaripur as given out by the meteorological department.
The Dhaka University Earth Observatory (DUEO) recorded one foreshock and eight aftershocks of the September 10 main shock, claimed Prof Humayun, also the director of Seismology and Geodesy Division at DUEO.
Similarly, he said, the origin of the earthquakes of July 5 in 2008 and July 27 in 2008 were in Rajshahi and Mymensingh respectively but the met office gave out the origin in Sylhet.
Besides, the meteorological department disseminated incorrect magnitude of the recent earthquakes in Chandpur, he added.
When contacted, Deputy Director of Meteorological Department Shah Alam said they have seismologist but not competent like that of university teachers.
He said they disseminate information from what their equipments shows.
Prof Humayun said there should be a separate seismic section at the meteorological department with seismologists manning the section.
Suggesting that earthquake observatory should be brought under the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), he said the United States Geological Survey (USGS) carries out monitoring all over the world.
Their data is acceptable to all as seismologists with geology background work there, he added.
He mentioned that Bangladesh Meteorological Department is under the Defense Ministry but met offices in other countries is under science and technology ministry.
Prof Humayun said Bangladesh Meteorological Department has four seismic stations across the country and these are not well distributed.
These seismic stations do not cover the western and south-west part of the country. As a result they cannot detect all earthquakes. And even when detected, the correct information is not available he said.
The four seismic stations in the country are now located in Chittagong, Dhaka, Sylhet and Rangpur.
Prof Humayun said DUEO has well distributed seismic coverage across the country.
It has six seismic stations located in Dhaka University, Khulna University, Rajshahi University, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, and Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.
The six permanent seismic stations cover all parts of the country, he said, adding that the DUEO also has six temporary seismic arrays.
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