Dharma Murti, convener and professor of geophysics, Osmania University, Hyderabad, delivers a speech at a seminar on exploration geophysics on Tuesday. ONGC director YB Sinha is seen on the right. Picture by Eastern Projections

Nov. 2: The Association of Exploration Geoscientists (AEG) is organising a series of PowerPoint presentations on tectonics for students here to generate greater awareness of earthquakes in the Northeast. An added aim is to encourage youngsters to go in for geosciences as a career.

The lectures and PowerPoint presentations would be held on Friday at the District Library.

Association secretary Y. Sreedhar Murthy said there is a great deal of tectonic activity in the region. The association, realising the need for introducing earth sciences to school-going children, is organising popular lectures on the topic. These would also explore the scientific causes of tremors.

Murthy said many students go in for medicine and engineering but hardly anybody takes up geosciences though they have a great deal to offer. These subjects are also very relevant to the region. The region has seen two big quakes ? the great Shillong quake of 1897 and the 1950 Assam tremors.

?There is a great deal to learn from both earthquakes, specially by students who are interested in making a career in geosciences,? he said.

Guwahati, with a million-plus population, lies in the highest seismic-risk zone ? Zone V. The zone?s vulnerability has risen in recent times with a boom in multi-storeyed constructions, many of which are not earthquake-resistant.

The Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (Amtron) is preparing a micro-zonation map of the city, which would chart out the vulnerability of specific areas to earthquakes.

The micro-zonation map would prove itself a basic tool for policymakers in planning the city?s development as it would help earmark certain areas for different kinds of activities.

A workshop on Geosciences and Tectonics of North East India was held today, in the course of which experts from the Geological Survey of India and other organisations spoke on the varied issues related to quakes in the region.

Murthy said all these activities form part of the association?s 29th annual convention of exploration geoscientists, which is starting in the city from Wednesday. Top officials from the oil industry are going to attend it to deliberate on the topic Petroleum Exploration in India ? Emerging Knowledge Base.

Houston-based chief geoscientist of multinational Schlumberger, Nadir Dutta, is scheduled to take part in the conference. Schlumberger is a Paris-based global oil service provider and consultant.