A low-intensity 3.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in and around Angul on Saturday night, which caused panic among the people.
People of Angul, Chhendipada, Kaniha and Talcher experienced light vibration with windows rattling. They rushed out of their houses immediately. However no damage has been reported.
Notably, an earthquake of low intensity had also jolted Angul and Talcher on August 27, 2019. Frequent tremors in and around the Angul-Talcher mines region has become a matter of concern among the people. Bounding Precambrian shield domains lie within the State of Odisha. According to the Indian seismic zone map, a major part of the State lies in Zone II. However, a vital strip that includes the urban areas of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Angul, Talcher, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal and a part of Baleswar district is placed in Zone III. This essentially means that the Talchir Basin is in the same seismic zone as Latur, Ahmedabad and Jabalpur and that the basin with its thick sediment cover faces the threat of earthquakes.
According to some researchers, mining accounts for the highest number of human-induced earthquakes worldwide (many earthquakes clustered around 271 sites).
The removal of minerals from the earth can cause instability, leading to sudden collapses that trigger earthquakes. “Without assessing the negative impact of mining in t he Angul-Talcher seismic zone, the Government is allowing 12 more coalmines for commercial mining in this area,“ rued Angul Citizens’ Action Forum president Rabindra Prasad Pattanaik.
