SALEM: Allaying fears after reports emerged of a tremor in Mettur dam’s water -spread area on Sunday night, officials have declared that there was no significant seismic activity which could damage the 81-year old dam or damage people and their property in the vicinity.
On Monday, PWD officials inspected the dam’s structure and ruled out any damage. “The dam is safe. The reported tremor was perhaps too mild to cause any damage to the structure which is very strong,” said a senior official.
Around 8 pm on Sunday, people living in villages 12 km down stream, such as Kolathur, Panaivadi, and Kottaiyur reported hearing a loud noise followed by vibrations causing utensils and other articles at home to fall from the shelves.
Panic-stricken, the villagers remained outdoors throughout the night. Soon, news spread that villagers further down, in Penagaran taluk in Dharmapuri district, also had experienced similar activity. Further, it was reported that some houses in the villages had developed cracks.
Following this, a team from the Mettur taluk office visited the villages on Monday morning and recorded statements of residents. People narrated experience of hearing a loud noise and feeling strong vibrations lasting a few seconds. The officials also checked claims of damage and looked for evidence for cracks in built structures.
Mettur RDO Anish Sekar said there was no damage to people or property. The seismograph in Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) office in the Salem Collectorate did not register any record of the reported tremor (Incidently, the seismograph had picked up the Nepal quake). Either the tremor was too mild to be sensed by the seismograph or it wasn’t seismic activity at all, Sekar said.
With even IMD Chennai not recording any seismic activity, geologists in Salem are of the view that the presence of tremors needs to be analysed whether it was a reservoir induced seismic activity (RIS) or a very low intensity tremor that was not recorded.