This book delivers a comprehensive synthesis of 25 years of scientific advances in the seismology, tectonics, and geology of the Kachchh Rift Zone, western India—site of the catastrophic 2001 Bhuj earthquake. Drawing on dense seismic monitoring, high-resolution tomography, receiver functions, magnetotelluric, and ground-motion modeling, it unveils the zone’s unique seismotectonic character shaped by inherited rift faults, deep fluids, and magmatic intrusions. This book highlights how earthquake source processes, aftershock evolution, and fault reactivation are driven by complex crustal and mantle structures, with special emphasis on fluid weakening and geodynamic stress transfer. Multidisciplinary insights inform seismic hazard assessment, microzonation, and the future of earthquake-resilient engineering in India’s most active intraplate region. This book stands as an essential reference for geoscientists, engineers, and policy-makers seeking to understand and mitigate the risks of continental intraplate earthquakes.

Dr. Prantik Mandal is an internationally recognized seismologist with more than three decades of research experience in Indian and global seismotectonics, recognized for pioneering post-2001 Bhuj earthquake research and instrumental in setting up dense seismic networks and innovative hazard assessment methodologies.