SL cleared of earthquake threat

Nimal Wijesinghe- Anuradhapura Additional District group corr

Epicenters of the earthquakes with magnitude between 5 to 7 in the Richter scale during the last three decades appear in dots. Picture by Nimal Wijesinghe Anuradhapura Additional District Group Correspondent

Only four earthquakes over seven in the Richter scale have been recorded during the last three decades. There is no immediate earthquake threat due to ocean plate formation in the South of Sri Lanka and it is premature to make it compulsory new building codes to withstand 'would be' earthquakes, Geological Survey and Mines Bureau chairman Dr N P Wijayananda told the Daily News.

Dr Wijayananda said the ocean plate formation south of Sri Lanka does not pose earthquake threat to Sri Lanka and there is no scientific evidence in support of such a trend.

Earthquakes occurred in the India ocean to the South of Sri Lanka during the last 30 years, show a trend which Geologists have concluded are due to ocean plate formation. Evidence of such formation has been observed in the sea bed (Seismic) surveys carried out recently.

This formation is taking place beyond 500 kilometres off the Southern cost of Sri Lanka, he said.

A new plate boundary to develop in this formation zone would take at least 10,000 year, Dr Wijayananda said.