The ground motion is a lot larger than previously thought, using numerical and physical models. He based his theory on ground deformation in South California, which is also prone to seismic upheavals. And the Tehri dam is built on the hanging wall side of the fault. He did not buy the American Association for the Advancement of Science view that the Indian subcontinent has been torn, stretched, and strained by aeons of plate tectonic jostling, and that has created weak spots in the crust. It would have made a great difference.
People tend to be fatalistic about the place above the epicentre.
But if five per cent of the cost of the building has been spent to increase resistance to quakes, the loss of life would have been tremendously reduced. Given the state of school buildings in the quake-affected area, had the quake not occurred on a national holiday, many more children might have died, he said.