Earthquake 2,500 years ago could have changed Ganga's course: Study

An earthquake around 2,500 years ago could have caused the Ganga river to abruptly change course, according to a new study published.

Researchers said the "undocumented" quake, possibly of magnitude 7-8, rerouted the main channel of the river in present day Bangladesh, a country vulnerable to big seismic shocks.

"I don't think we have ever seen such a big one (earthquake) anywhere," said study co-author Michael Steckler, a geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Climate School, US.

"It could have easily inundated anyone and anything in the wrong place at the wrong time," Steckler said.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Originating in the Himalayas, the river Ganga eventually combines with other major rivers, including the Brahmaputra and the Meghna, before culminating in the Bay of Bengal. The rivers form the world's second-largest system, the Amazon being the largest.

Many river-course changes, called 'avulsions', including some tha