It was a quivery bedtime for Delhiites on late Monday night as a series of earthquakes rocked the Capital rendering many awake in panic. After over nine years, four low intensity quakes, measuring 2.5 to 3.3 on the Richter scale, shook Delhi and national Capital Region (NCR) in the intervening nights of Monday and Tuesday.
However, experts have rather called these mild tremors as a ‘blessing in disguise’ as according to them, quakes with slight magnitude help in keeping major ones at bay. The quakes, which occurred within a span of three hours between 12:41 and 3:40 in the morning, were felt in Delhi and its adjoining areas like Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.
Tremors of the first quake which occurred at 12:41 am and measured 3.1 on the Richter scale lasted for three to four seconds. This quake had its epicenter near Sainik Farms area in South Delhi having a depth of 10 kilometres below the ground. The second quake, which was felt an hour after the first one at 1:41 am measured 3.3 on the Richter scale.
This was epicentred further South at South-East of Manesar beyond Gurgaon in Haryana. The last two quakes measuring 2.5 and 2.8 on the Richter scale occurred at 1:55 am and 3:40 am respectively. “The epicenter of all the four quakes was at a depth of 10-11 kms and was situated at 28.4 degree North latitude and 77.4 degree East longitude. People strongly felt the tremors because the depth of the epicenter was very shallow,” said RS Dattatrayam, head of Centre for Seismology, Indian Meteorological Department. According to the Fire Department, there was no report of any damage in the city.
A similar situation had happened on April 5, 2004 wherein a total of five events were recorded in the magnitude range of 1.2 and 2.0 on the Richter scale, Met officials said. Explaining the cause of the tremors, Dattatrayam added, “Seismotectonics of the Delhi and neighbourhood indicates presence of several lineaments and faults in the region, which are responsible for the earthquake activity in the region.”
Meanwhile, even as the vibrations came as a nightmare for many, geologists have in fact called these tremors worthwhile. “If lesser number of low intensity quakes, like these, occur it helps in avoiding a very high intensity earthquake. These mild tremors help in releasing the accumulated strain energy in the region from time to time, otherwise, if these are trapped beneath for long, it might result in a massive quake,” said Soumitra Mukherjee, Professor of Geology and Remote Sensing at Jawaharlal Nehru University.