Another Earthquake Jolts Delhi

NEW DELHI: Delhi experienced second earthquake in a week late on Wednesday night. A 3.2-magnitude tremor hit Delhi, Noida and their surrounding areas around 10:42 pm on Wednesday night (June 3, 2020).

Due to its low intensity, no casualties or any visible damage were reported from any of these places. Announcing the quake, the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said that "earthquake of magnitude 3.0 struck 17 km east of Faridabad (Haryana) at 10:42 pm today (Wednesday)."

This is the second quake to jolt the Delhi region within a week. On May 29, a mild intensity earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale rocked parts of eastern Haryana and Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) at 9:08 m. The quake's epicentre was Rohtak in Haryana and the depth was 3.3 kilometres.

More disconcerting is the fact that Delhi and its adjoining areas have experienced at least 6-7 earthquakes in the last one month. The earthquakes are only adding to the tension of the people at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Frequent rumblings or tremors are often seen as a sign of a highly devastating earthquake in store. 

However seismologists are reassuring people that these tremors are a usual phenomenon. Asking people not to panic, they say that these tremors occur every year. However, there needs to be caution and one has to be vigilant in the areas where houses are not strongly built especially when there is an earthquake of 4.0 and above magnitude.

"Though, no major earthquake shock has been predicted yet, because of the fact that Delhi Seismic Zone is in category four, it is necessary that these houses have a safet audit," Dr Soumitra Mukherjee, Professor of Geology at Jawaharlal Nehru University told Zee News India.