And now, Dr Saumitra Mukherjee, associate professor of Jawaharlal NehruUniversity's Centre for Environment, says that another quake with anintensity of 4 to 6 on the Richter scale will hit between Tuesday night andThursday night. But he cannot say where exactly the epicentre will be. ``OnSunday night, scientists recorded coronal mass ejection from the sun,pointed toward the earth. Whenever such an ejection happens, it takes 24 to48 hours to reach the earth's surface and is followed by a quake."

Coronal mass ejection is the term which refers to the emission of largeamounts of energy from the outer surface of the sun. The rise in sunspotsand coronal mass ejection are co-related, especially if it is pointed towardthe earth and there is activity in the already active tectonic faults. Itcan result in an earthquake, Dr Mukerjee's hypothesis says.

Dr Mukherjee says that on January 24, two days before the Gujaratearthquake, NASA said the coronal mass ejection from the sun was pointedtowards the earth and the sunspot was 178. When this coronal mass ejectionreached the earth, it had an effect on the already active faults, areaswhich are already earthquake-prone, this time in Kutch. ``So, wherever theearth's faults are active, there could be a quake anywhere from Californiato the Philippines, and India too. There are several seismically activespots in India, especially along the Western coast of the country,'' he says.Dr Mukherjee's hypothesis, co-relating coronal mass ejection and tremors inseismically active areas, is yet to be accepted, though he had made asubmission to the Department of Science and Technology as early asSeptember, last year.

``Yesterday, there were rumours in Gujarat that there would be anotherquake. I studied the coronal mass activity and said there would not be anyquake,'' he says.

``But, I can say with certainty that there will be mild to medium tremorsbetween Tuesday and Thursday, somewhere in the world,'' Dr Mukherjee says.He quickly adds, ``There is no need to panic as by April 2001, the seismicactivities will reduce.'' This, Dr Mukherjee says, is because every 11years, the pressure on the earth's magnetic field grows more acute with theincreasing sunspot activity reaching its solar maximum by April 2001.``After this, the solar maximum will reduce, reaching its lowest by April2006,'' he says. Dr Mukherjee says the India plate has been active for thepast few years now moving five cm each year toward the Eurasian plate. Hehas been studying the geochemical analysis of the soil in Delhi andJabalpur. In Delhi, samples from the Asola-Bahadurgarh belt, where there isa seismically active fault, were sent for analysis to the GeologicalResearch Centre in Hyderabad. The results showed geochemical anomalies.``There was very high content of manganese, iron, zirconium and novium. Thissampling was done in 1999 for a research project in JNU,'' he says.

According to Dr Mukherjee this means an increase in the possibilities oftremors. In Jabalpur, Dr Mukherjee noticed natural anomalies. ``The waterlevels have gone down to an unusual low -- 10-12 feet in one year. A lot ofants have come up to the surface in winter and mango trees, which usuallyflower in February, flowered in November. This indicates some unusualactivity beneath the earth's surface and could be a sign of an impendingearthquake,'' he says. Dr Mukherjee says he spoke with the Jabalpur districtmagistrate, who confirmed these unusual natural indicators.

Dr Mukherjee is hoping that his hypothesis will gain more acceptance afterhis Gujarat theory has been proved.