Earthquakes in Delhi

Delhi , India's capital which is also an Union territory, is a huge fast growing metropolitan city of the country, sharing boundaries with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. This region feature as a major tectonic boundary in geophysical literature. On an intrinsic study we find out that Delhi is placed at the interface of old metamorphic rocks belt and the young alluvial sediments deposited in response to collision and weathering activities. During the last few months a lot of tectonic activity has been observed in this region. The latest tremor was on Friday,29th May .

 Two seismic events followed one after another, both the earthquakes were of medium intensity. The first was felt on 9:08pm IST having its epicentre at Rohtak in Haryana. According to the National Centre of Seismology the magnitude of the earthquake measured was 4.6 in the Richter scale and its depth was recorded at 5 kilometres.

The after shock was felt at about 10pm IST on the same day. Its magnitude was recorded as 2.9 in the Richter scale. 

The distance between Rohtak and Delhi is 65 kilometres, yet the strong tremors were felt in Delhi and its surrounding area such as Noida and Gurugram for a few seconds.

The Indian Peninsula has been historically famous for earthquakes. The most satisfactory reason for the seismic events of high intensity is that the Indian plate is drifting underneath Asian plate at a rate of more than 40 millimetres per year, leading to convergence of plate boundaries causing frictional force to work and  give rise to wear and tear.

As per geologists, Delhi lies in zone four on the seismic map of India, the region is close to the fault line and is susceptible to low intensity earthquakes.

Source:CC-by-sa PlaneMad/Wikimedia

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_zones_of_India

Four more earthquakes were

reported earlier this year from the region

One of them, was recorded on May 15, it had a magnitude of 2.2 in the Richter scale. It hit in the North-West part of Delhi.

Just five days before the above seismic event  another earth tremor  was observed having a magnitude of 3.4 in the Richter scale. The epicentre of the disaster was said to be in North-East Delhi, in the Wazirpur area.

Seismic events were noticed on two consecutive days of April too.

April 12 saw an earthquake having its epicentre at Sonia Vihar, East Delhi with a magnitude of 3.5 in the Richter scale.

On the next day another tremor was felt , it had a magnitude of 2.7 in the Richter scale and had its epicentre at the same place.

The city has undergone damage as well as shocks when the high magnitude earthquakes hit in the neighbouring regions adjacent to Himalayan mountain.

These events signifies major release of energy from earths interior due convective movement of lithospheric plate.The fact is that the process of energy release is accelerating day by day, and is a matter of deep concern for the society. A probable link of global warming with tectonic activity demand scientific scrutiny. The low intensity tremors that have recently arisen in the past few months could be the indication of a much bigger and deadlier calamity that could lead to destruction of population and economy of the region. The only way to minimise the damage offered by the earthquake would be by taking necessary precautions and by staying alert.

Stay safe, Stay healthy

Thank you for reading ,

By Rupak Ghosh