Now, for the first time, scientists have evidence that earthquakes can reroute rivers: It happened to the Ganges River 2,500 years ago. The study collected core samples of sand and mud from the Ganges Delta in depths up to nearly 300 feet below ground surface. Liz ChamberlainSediment reveals ancient secretsTo determine how long ago this massive earthquake hit, Chamberlain and her colleagues used a method called optically stimulated luminescence. “It’s directly measuring sand or mud grains and looking at when these sediment grains were last exposed to sunlight,” she said. Monitoring quakes todayIf a similar earthquake happened in the Ganges Delta today, more than 140 million people in the area could be affected.

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Persons: ”, Elizabeth Chamberlain, Chamberlain, Steve Goodbred, ” Chamberlain, Michael Steckler, Rachel Bain, Liz Chamberlain, Jonathan Stewart, Syed Humayun Akhter, ” Kate Golembiewski Organizations: CNN — Earthquakes, Nature Communications, Wageningen University & Research, Steve, Columbia Climate School, Vanderbilt University, UCLA, Bangladesh Open University, Studies Locations: India, Bangladesh, Meghna, Bengal, Congo, Dhaka, Netherlands, New York, San Francisco, Nashville, Delta, Chicago