1819 - Allahbund (Gujarat), India, Mw 7.5  Date: 16 June 1819  Epicentre: 9.5 kilometres ESE of Niruna (Gujarat), India  Latitude: 23.60o N  Longitude: 69.60o E  Origin Time:19:00 hrs local time  Magnitude: Mw 7.5 , 7.7 , M 8.3  On June 16, 1819, the Rann of Kutchh in the westernmost corner of India was rocked by a violent earthquake. More than 1,500 persons are believed to have perished in the quake, which was felt over a wide swathe of the Indian Sub-continent. Estimated magnitudes for this earthquake, range from M 7.5 to as high M 8.3. One of the most striking features of this event was an approximately 90-kilometre long, elevated stretch of land, called the Allah Bund meaning "Mound of God" (7; 2; 12) or "God's Embankment". Previously, it was thought to be a fault scarp belonging to the causative fault, but recent studies are now of the opinion that it could also be a fold above a blind reverse fault. The epicentre of the earthquake is though to lie along the Indo-Pak border, approximately 9.5 kilometres ESE of Niruna (Gujarat), India, Or 39.6 kilometres NNW of Bhuj (Gujarat), India, Or 135 kilometres NNW of Jamnagar (Gujarat), India, Or 191 kilometres NW of Rajkot (Gujarat), India, Or 298 kilometres ESE of Karachi (Sindh), Pakistan, Or 311 kilometres WNW of Ahmedabad (Gujarat), India, Or 614 kilometres NNW of Mumbai (Maharashtra), India The earthquake occurred at about seven in the evening on 16 June 1819. This time must not be confused with the presently used Indian Standard Time (I.S.T.= G.M.T + 5½ hrs), which came into effect a hundred years later, in July 1905. Till as late as 1905, there were large scale variations in time across the Indian Sub-continent. The moment magnitude (Mw = M) of this earthquake has been estimated at M7.5 (16; 17) using a relationship between moment magnitude and the farthest liquefaction event. Other studies estimate the geometric moment magnitude to be M7.7±0.5 and M7.5±0.4 based on intensity distribution. Slippage occurred on a north-east dipping reverse fault in the Kutch aulacogen or failed rift.  A 90-kilometre stretch of land was elevated by 4.3 metres during the earthquake and was called the Allah Bund. Trenching work done across this feature suggests that it is not the trace of a fault but is instead, a fold, due to lack of visible offsets, thus suggesting that the earthquake was blind i.e. with no surface rupture. Referring to journal entries made by Capt. R.M. Grindlay during his journey from Kori Creek to Ali Bunder in 1808, it was suggested that the surface was "essentially featureless and no former fault scarp was present". However, later field research provide evidence that the Allah Bund, was not only present before the earthquake of 1819, but also show that this feature had been uplifted at least thrice in the past.  Just as the area to the north of the Allah Bund was elevated, the region to the south is said to have subsided several metres due to down-faulting, submerging the fort of Sindri, thus implying subsidence in the range of 5-6 metres. The fort was not submerged immediately, rather within a span of a few hours, and residents sought refuge on the upper parts of the fort from where they were rescued the next morning. The surrounding area was converted into a lake (Lake Sindri). Liquefaction damage to the foundations of the fort as well as a high tide at the time of the earthquake could have aggravated the situation. This, along with incorrect post-quake illustrations made by in 1838 which were used as pictorial evidence for the large subsidence, misled earlier authors to overestimate the amount of subsidence, whereas the actual value was about 1 meter. The most violent effects of the shock were experienced within an 80-kilometre radius of the epicentre. Much, if not most of the reports from Kutchh, come from letters written by J. Mac Murdo to the Governor's Office in Bombay (now Mumbai). He was the British resident at Bhuj and was visiting Anjar on the evening of the earthquake. In a letter written a day after the earthquake, he says that the shaking lasted nearly two minutes. Large sand blows were observed in the Rann and the Banni, some of which were active 2-3 days after the main earthquake. Some of these were 12-20 feet in diameter. Fluvial systems were disrupted, some temporarily while some were permanent. Flow stopped for 3 days in all the channels of the Fullalee River in the districts south of Hyderabad. Near the town of Veego-Gud (now Vigakot) the Nara River was dammed, forming a pool and the downstream section dried up. The fort at Veego-Gud was also destroyed by the quake. Another distributary of the Indus flowing through the region is also thought to have dried up as a result of the quake. Villages in the region bordering the southern Great Rann like Juria were described by Ballantyne as "complete ruins" and the ground was rent with fissures. The latter is indicative of lateral spreading, the width of the cracks ranging from an inch to as wide as one foot. At Anjar, on the Kutchh mainland, the fort wall and three-fourths of the houses were demolished. Damage in Bhuj, though considerable was to a lesser degree than at Anjar. The wall surrounding Bhuj was razed and the towers that remained standing were heavily damaged. Many buildings in the town, including the Palace, were badly damaged. Mac Murdo estimated as many as 1,543 fatalities in both Anjar and Bhuj, with 1,547 damaged or destroyed buildings. He later revised the number of destroyed buildings at Anjar to 7,000. He mentions 116 casualties at Mandvi and 150 at Lakhpat and talks of the same "dreadful effects" being experienced at Kotri, Mothana, Nagreecha and Tera. Despite providing detailed accounts on the damage and the number of casualties in the large population centres in Kutchh, the only shortcoming of Mac Murdo's records is that he does not include details of casualties in villages nearer to the epicentre, i.e. in the Rann and in southern Sindh, which are known to have been badly affected. The exact number of fatalities for this earthquake, might therefore be higher than the figure obtained from Mac Murdo's letters. Damaging shaking affected a wide area of Saurashtra and places as far a field as Surat. At Porbander, the wall of the fort was badly damaged and partially collapsed. The farthest report of liquefaction comes from near Porbunder and this has been used, to quantify the size of the 1819 quake. Further down the Saurashtra coast, the town of Mangrole was heavily damaged and 50 people were killed. The city of Ahmedabad, roughly 300 kilometres to the east of the epicentral region, was badly shaken. Unnamed sources claim that 500 persons gathered for a wedding in Ahmedabad perished. But official letters and reports written after the earthquake make no mention of this and clearly state that there were no casualties in the city. The minarets of the Juma Masjid collapsed and the rest of the building was damaged. A small number of temples were also damaged. The wall of the Adalat (Law Court) and the Palace of the Peshwa's Viceroys in Gujarat were badly cracked. At Ahmedabad ,the ground motion was not felt by persons in motion. At Kaira, 2 people were killed. The Adalat and a Jain temple were badly damaged. Bharuch (also writted as Broach) and Surat, were strongly shaken and a few buildings were damaged. In a letter to the Governor's Office in Bombay, J. Pruen states that 1 person was killed. However, it is difficult to ascertain from the context of the letter, whether this casualty occurred in Surat or in the neighbouring village of Omer, and also whether the death happened during the main shock on June 16th or on June 17th, during a strong and widely felt aftershock. Remote aquifer response was noted at Bharuch. Strong tremors were experienced at Baroda (now Vadodara) but there was no damage or casualties. To the north of the epicentral zone, the quake severely affected Hyderabad, in Pakistan's Sindh Province.  In the weeks following the earthquake, reports of the shock being felt, came in from across the Sub-continent. In Bombay, the shock was felt at Cambala and at Sion. This earthquake wasn't as strongly and widely felt in the city as the Bhuj earthquake in 2001. The shock was also felt at Poona (now Pune). In the south of India, reports came in from Pondicherry and some areas of Tamil Nadu, and in the east from Calcutta (Now Kolkata). To the north, tremors were experienced at places like Allahabad and Kathmandu. Quetta, in the Baluchistan hills were the farthest location in the north-west to feel the shock. Aftershocks continued to be felt in the region for several months. Among the strongest aftershocks was one that struck at around 10am, on June 17, which was felt at Ahmedabad, Bhuj, Bharuch and Surat. Another strong aftershock occurred on July 15, which was strong enough to thrown down tiles from many houses at Bhuj. According to Mac Murdo, the frequency of the aftershocks decreased in the following months.