ABSTRACT
Liquefaction during the 2001 Bhuj–Gujarat Earthquake occurred in the Great Rann—the salt playas of Kachchh. They are large terrains of thick Quaternary sediments and provide the best ground for preservation of palaeoseismic features; they were preserved during the 2001 event. The Great Rann formed on the half graben between the Nagar Parkar Fault in the north and the Island Belt Fault in the south during the Quaternary period. The 2001 earthquake liquefaction features and their characteristics can be useful in assessing the magnitudes and epicentre location of older events. Shallow pits around Umedpur, Chobari, Baniyari and Amarsar villages reveal a comparative picture of the dimension of liquefaction at the epicentral zone. Sand blow thickness was found to decrease with epicentral distance, while at major active fault zones, the rule does not hold true, as huge liquefactions are reported near the Kachchh Mainland Fault and in the Great Rann along the Allah Bund Fault. The characteristics of the reactivated and non-reactivated craters in the active intraplate seismic zones depend on the presence or absence of collapsed clasts of host sediments, cap material and liquefied sediments in the vent. For liquefaction-related hazards in intraplate seismic zones, the areas with thin alluvial cover and enormously thick inland playas must be considered the most vulnerable for strategic planning.
