If only an alarm rang: A ravaged Tamil Nadu coast after the tsunami strike

Midnapore, Feb. 7: In a bid to bridge the yawning gap of knowhow on quakes in the wake of the tsunami disaster, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has decided to introduce a two-year post-graduate degree course in computational seismology.

The department of geophysics and geology will conduct the course, which should be ready for a July start.

Officials at the oldest IIT said this is the first time that such a highly specialised post-graduate course will be taught in the country.

The Centre?s department of science and technology will assist the IIT in conducting the studies that are part of a Mission Mode Project, which figures in the Tenth Plan.

Sankar Kumar Nath, the course coordinator and head of the geophysics and geology department, said: ?The purpose of the course is to train scholars to help mitigate the impact of quakes through mathematical analyses and computer simulation.?

The scholars, he added, would also meaningfully interpret ?from vast high quality seismic digital data that have been accumulated in the recent years by various institutions in the country?.

The department of science and technology would provide about Rs 2 crore to set up a state-of-the-art laboratory for computational seismology.

D. Gunashekharan, the IIT Kharagpur registrar, said in the wake of the havoc wreaked by the tsunami, triggered by the earthquakes in Sumatra, the endeavour will bring down the knowledge gap of seismologists in the region.

The course will have four semesters and, initially, 15 students will be admitted. Of them, 10 will be sponsored by organisations like the Indian Meteorological Department, the Geological Survey of India, the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. The remaining five will be taken in through tests.

Nath said a huge pile of data is available in the seismological observatories across the country. ?We can analyse the data and find more about the possibility of quakes and the extent to which they can cause damage. We are now unable to go into deeper analyses because of a dearth of high quality scientific and technological manpower. The wide knowledge gap became apparent during last December?s tsunami,? he added.

An IIT official said the new course will produce 15 scholars every year, who would undertake research projects to develop ?critical knowledge? of hazards and be equipped with a sound knowledge of the physics and mathematics of quakes and related geophysical phenomena.