Scoring Firsts

I was fortunate to get opportunities to do things that no one had done before. It all started with setting up of the Seismological Observatory at the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad similar to the World -Wide Standard Seismograph Network (WWSSN) established globally by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), indigenously. Curiosity to understand earthquake generated surface waves led to the discovery of an enormously thick crust of 65–70 km below the Himalaya and the Tibet Plateau region in 1967. This discovery stood the test of time and got strength with additional global research, later. The 10 December 1967 Koyna earthquake of M 6.3 initiated me to the study of artificial water reservoir triggered seismicity (RTS). The studies revealed that the 10 December Koyna earthquake was a multiple seismic event. Detailed RTS studies conducted globally fructified in identifying certain common characteristics of RTS events that discriminate them from normal earthquakes. A dream came true in 1983 when an opportunity appeared unexpectedly to lead the 3rd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica to establish India’s first permanent base. That, I could succeed in setting up Dakshin Gangotri, the first all-weather scientific station, despite a near fatal MI 8 helicopter crash right at the beginning of the expedition in a lonely place on some remote corner on our planet is one bright moment in the duty towards the nation. India became the first country, globally, to set up and populate a permanent station in Antarctica in one Antarctic summer, a record that still holds. The Center for Earth Science Studies, Trivandrum was operating in hired buildings when I joined in 1982. A campus spread over 19 acres was built in just 18 moths time, complete with laboratories, offices, library, auditorium, guest house at a very competitive cost. As the Vice Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, I hosted the first ever Science Congress in the Kerala State in 1990. An accurate earthquake forecast was made an ~ M 8 plus/minus half magnitude earthquake to occur in North-East India in 1986 that fructified in 1988. Detailed study of earthquake pattern also led to 15-day forecasts of 9 magnitude ~4 earthquakes in Koyna during 2006–2009. There was no false forecast.