. Earthquake and floods has jolted Himachal pradesh many times and caused great losses to the State. Flood, cloudburst, landslide and cloud burst are other common natural calamities of the State.
Earthquake
Himachal Pradesh is located in the northwestern part of Himalaya. Himalaya came into being due to inter-continental collision between Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate. The inter-continental collision caused volcanism, folding, faulting, under thrusting, uplift, crustal shortening and accumulation of seismic energy. There are a number of faults viz. Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT), Jawalamukhi Thrust (JT) etc.
Floods
All the major rivers of the State have their sources in glaciers. One common feature of glacier area is the presence of glacier lakes. When these lakes burst causes flash floods. Sudden discharge of huge volume of water from glacial lake is known as Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).
Cloudburst
Cloudbursts are associated with convective clouds. Vertical Development of clouds in Himalayan region is associated with its topography and southwestern monsoon wind direction. Himalaya is arch shape mountain located in east-west direction in the northernmost part of India. Average elevation of Himalaya is about 6100 meters above mean sea level.
Avalanche
Sudden slide of large mass of snow along the slopes of mountain is called avalanche. They occur in high altitude area with steep valley slopes and are common in Kinnaur, Lahul and Spiti, Kullu, Chamba and Kangra districts.