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My Sincere Tribute to Prof Markus Bth, Uppsala University In early eighties I was struggling to learn seismology along with

other aspects of earthquakes out of sudden interest I developed while reading the Memoir of R.D. Oldham on the Great 1897 earthquake. I started reading books and journals on earthquakes, seismology and related topics. With my background as a sedimentary geologist in no time I lost tract and was desperately seeking some guidance or assistance from someone who could help me in making understanding even the basics e.g. the G-R relation etc. As far as I remember in early 1982 I had chanced upon a paper by Markus Bth and thought why not to write him to clear my confusions. I took time to decide because it was quite expensive for me at that point of time to send letters abroad and may be the person may not respond at all. Ultimately I decided to write him and I was so delighted to get reply within a couple of weeks along with some of his reprints. For the next two years I wrote him several letters which Prof Bth replied promptly and explained issues like a Teacher. Subsequently due to my different official (GSI) assignments I failed to keep touch with him but his encouragements through his earlier letters left lasting impression which I later used to pursue studies in the field of Seismotectonics. After my retirement from GSI (2010) while weeding out my old documents I found 5 letters from Prof Bth written to me between 1982 and 1984. I enquired about Prof Bth only to know that Sir has expired long back in 2000. I felt extremely sorry. I am uploading these letters in my scribd site (www.scribd.com/geology1950). I am ready to part with better scan images or the original letters if any one (Uppsala University, direct student of Prof Bth or his family members) is interested to have it.

SDG 16.05.12

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