Pakistan is prone to earthquakes. Seismically, Pakistan is one of the most active areas of Asia. It has high density of active faults and is located at the intersection of three plate boundaries, namely Indian, Eurasian and Arabian. Numerous high-magnitude earthquakes in the past in Pakistan have resulted in loss of life, property and infrastructure. The 2005 Kashmir earthquake and 1935 Quetta earthquake were the most destructive, due to which thousands of people lost their lives. After a description of the regional tectonic structure for context, this article discusses the most major and most destructive historical earthquakes in Pakistan. It describes the associated tectonics, and provides an assessment of seismic hazards in Pakistan.

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.

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Publicly available seismic and well data are used to study the subsurface structure and stratigraphy of an area on the southern margin of the Central Indus Basin (CIB), Pakistan. Study area includes southern parts of the Punjab Platform and Sulaiman Foredeep tectonic units of the CIB. A regional scale East-West depth cross-section is prepared in South of hydrocarbon bearing Safed Koh Trend to Punjab Platform. It gives the structural configuration of various formations of Paleozoic-Cenozoic times. Reflectors are marked and correlated with the help of wells Drigri-01 and Bahawalpur East-01, located on seismic lines 914-RPR-03 and 916-YZM-05 respectively. These reflectors/formations are correlated with respect to ages to avoid the confusions as there are many truncations in the area. Average velocities are used for the depth computation. Depth cross-section (AB) shows that Punjab Monocline is a stable area with a shallow basement. In Punjab Platform all the formations dip gently to the West. Then they attain steep dips in the Sulaiman Foredeep/Depression area. Depth cross-section along the Drigri anticline which lies in the SE of Sakhi Sarwar anticline reveals that it is extended E-W over 17 km approx. and the reverse faults are present on both flanks of a fold, due to that a pop up structure is formed. It's a low amplitude fold, as it marks the southern end of Safed Koh Trend (first line of folding of the folded flank of Sub-Sulaiman Fore Deep). Subsurface structural variations at Bahawalpur show a buried high of Jurassic-S. Asim et al. 1232 Permian age. A sedimentary cover is 9 km thick in West and 3 m thick in East. Basement is uplifted at Bahawalpur High.

The Research work comprises area of Punjab Platform, Sulaiman Foredeep and Eastern Part of Sulaiman Fold Belt (from east to west), which is further extended to Zamzama and Dadu area of Lower Indus Basin. Seismic data interpretation suggests a presence of a stratigraphic trap of Paleocene/Late Cretaceous age. It can act as a stratigraphic trap of reservoir quality for hydrocarbons. This feature is marked and discussed on various seismic sections. Sometimes it is difficult to locate this feature due to effect of folding, resulting from later compressions associated with a collision of Indian Plate. This structure could be explored for a hydrocarbon prospect in future. Such stratigraphic traps were not explored in the past.