Introduction: The October 2005, Kashmir earthquake main event was triggered along the Balakot-Bagh Fault which runs from Bagh to Balakot, and caused more damages in and around these areas. Major landslides were activated during and after the earthquake inflicting large damages in the area, both in terms of infrastructure and casualties. These landslides were mainly attributed to the minimum threshold of the earthquake, geology of the area, climatologic and geomorphologic conditions, mudflows, widening of the roads without stability assessment, and heavy rainfall after the earthquake. These landslides were mainly rock and debris falls. Hattian Bala rock avalanche was largest landslide associated with the earthquake which completely destroyed a village and blocked the valley creating a lake. Discussion: The present study shows that the fault rupture and fault geometry have direct influence on the distribution of landslides and that along the rupture zone a high frequency band of landslides was triggered. There was an increase in number of landslides due to 2005 earthquake and its aftershocks and that most of earthquakes have occurred along faults, rivers and roads. It is observed that the stability of landslide mass is greatly influenced by amplitude, frequency and duration of earthquake induced ground motion. Most of the slope failures along the roads resulted from the alteration of these slopes during widening of the roads, and seepages during the rainy season immediately after the earthquake. Conclusion: Landslides occurred mostly along weakly cemented and indurated rocks, colluvial sand and cemented soils. It is also worth noting that fissures and ground crack which were induced by main and after shock are still present and they pose a major potential threat for future landslides in case of another earthquake activity or under extreme weather conditions.

This study analyzed the land deformation associated with Mw 6.3 earthquake along Pasni coast, Pakistan. Post-earthquake widespread surface displacements were found using Sentinel-1 data. Pre, Co and Post-seismic images were used to investigate the deformation trends. Before the earthquake, 89.65% of Pasni land mass showed uplifting from 0.0 to 3.0 cm at 1.00 mm/day while 3.0 cm subsidence was noted in 86.36% of the land mass after the earthquake at 2.5 mm/day. However, two weeks after the earthquake, 72.9% Pasni land mass showed uplifting at an unprecedented rate of 3.3 mm/day. The maximum deformation along the Line Of Sight (LOS) direction in co-seismic time was about -4.0 cm. Azimuthal interferogram showed more complex displacement pattern with both negative and positive displacements between ±5.0 cm. Pasni is already facing many problems due to increased sea water intrusion under prevailing climatic changes and land deformation due to strong earthquakes.

Earthquakes occur because of increase of stress and rock fracture. Prior to impending earthquake, physical and chemical interactions in the earth’s crust lead to anomalous variations of air temperature (AT). Satellite based remote sensing method allows to determine earthquake precursors over a large tectonic area. Buildup of stresses in a seismically active area manifests as thermal anomaly. In the present study, variations in AT prior to eastern Turkey, Bella Bella (Canada) and Pocito (Argentina) earthquakes were studied by utilizing multi-year background data. The analysis shows strong anomalous variations of AT prior to the seismic events with the highest AT values recorded before the earthquakes. Anomaly plots show that the release of energy was concentrated in the region along epicenter. Descriptive statistics of AT for the earthquakes show significant changes prior to the seismic event. Degassing of gases occur during rock micro-fracturing, which results in air ionization, thereby resulting in AT precursory anomalies.