>Geologist apologises, but warning stands *** GEOLOGIST!
>a PhD in astro-geo physics, *** Ph D? ASTRO_GEOPHYSICS? Fools all!! cm Geologist apologises, but warning stands GUWAHATI, Sept 8 - A Chennai-based geologist, whose "prediction" that an earthquake will hit Asom this morning triggered panic here, apologised to the people of the State but said the warning still stands for next three days, reports PTI. On being contacted by PTI in Chennai, N Venkatanathan, a PhD in astro-geo physics, expressed regret for the inconvenience caused, but added "I still hold my prediction till September 11". "My warning still stands for the next three days with the probability of occurance 65 per cent. It may take two to three days for the quake to be triggered," the scientist said. "As soon as my prediction was made public, I immediately sent e-mails to the Assam Disaster Management Cell yesterday repeating that my prediction is not a public or official warning. No need for panic or evacuation of people," he said. On being told that the people here were upset with him for disrupting their normal life with his prediction of the quake at 8.21 am today, he said, "there is a possiblity of scientific error and people cannot squarely blame me. But all I can do is apologise to the people of Asom for the inconvenience caused to them." "My prediction was not for the public but only for the scientific community and some known press people. But some greedy person leaked it to the press," he said. Following media reports about the impending quake, Asom government had yesterday issued a general alert after an emergency meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S Kabilan, instructing the hospitals, health centres, medical colleges, nurses and doctors to remain in a state of preparedness to meet any eventuality. Though the government had stressed that there was no need to panic "as such predictions were not based on scientific reason", the meeting had issued a "general alert" to the army, police and security forces to be prepared. The government also opened a 24-hour control room and the district administration of Dibrugarh, where the epicentre of the quake was expected, was put on alert to adopt all precautionary means. Though the government did not declare closure of the schools but only asked them to adopt all precautions, children kept away from most schools and many private institutions remained closed. The earthquake prediction caused so much terror among the people that they had emergency survival kits prepared, and remained indoors since last evening. People spent a sleepless night together with their near and dear ones and those who slept awoke early. Those residing in highrise buildings were a particularly worried lot assembling at the ground floor before 8.21 am. Asked how he had arrived at his quake conclusion, Venkatanathan said, "to know the location and time of earthquakes the direction of the forces and when the earthquake triggering planets cross the earth in an eliptical path have to be calculated". Asserting there was "no failure" in his methodology, he said, "I have analysed 4000 earthquakes all over the world during the last 200 years. Only study of the movements in the earth is not enough. Other planets' forces also have to calculated". Earthquakes were not caused whenever the planets were in a straight line but were caused if electromagnetic forces were induced, the geologist said. "The Sun, Mercury and Earth would be in a straight line today and the electro-magnetic forces caused by the to and fro motion of the planets which are moving in an elliptical path could trigger the quake," Venkatanathan, a member of the Britain-based International Society for Earthquake Predictions, said. Asked what would be his credibility if his prediction for Asom failed in the next three days, he said, "In any scientific prediction there is error limit." Denying the popular notion that quakes could not be predicted, he claimed it was possible if astro-physics was combined with geology. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
