Two quakes rock Manipur districts, no casualties reported

Imphal, Jan 22 Two successive earthquakes, measuring 4.3 and 3.3 on the Richter scale, jolted southern Manipur’s mountainous Churachandpur and Pherzawl districts and adjoining areas on Wednesday night, officials said.

Officials said that a moderate-intensity earthquake, measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale, jolted southern Manipur’s Pherzawl district and adjoining areas on Wednesday night.

According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) data, the tremor struck at a depth of 40 km from the surface. Within 49 minutes from the first tremor, another quake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale, hit Churachandpur district and adjoining areas at around 9.46 p.m. The second shake struck at a depth of 30 km from the surface, the NCS data said.

According to Disaster Management Officials, there has been no immediate report of loss of life or damage to property in the two consecutive quakes.

Pherzawl district shares a border with Mizoram and Assam while Churachandpur district has borders with Mizoram and Myanmar. Wednesday's tremor occurred in Manipur after six separate quakes in Manipur and seven shakes in northeastern states this month.

Quake hit Churachandpur district (3.1 on the Richter scale) on January 2 and in the same day the tremor (3.8) struck in Tamenglong district, on January 5 in Kamjong district (3.1), on January 7 in Kangpokpi district (3.6) on January 13 in the same Kangpokpi district (3.3), on January 17 in Tamenglong district (3.3) and on January 21 in Meghalaya’s South West Khasi Hills district (4.1 on the Richter scale).

According to NCS data, more than one quake every week hit a northeastern state with most tremors measuring 3 to 4 on the Richter scale.

Successive earthquakes, mostly mild to moderate, in the mountainous northeastern states, especially in Assam, Mizoram, and Manipur, have kept the authorities worried, forcing public and private builders to build quake-proof structures.

Seismologists consider the mountainous northeastern region as the sixth most earthquake-prone belt in the world.

In 1950, an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale altered the course of the mighty Brahmaputra river, which passes by the congested Guwahati city, the northeastern region's main commercial hub.

Another earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale hit northeastern India in 1988, killing over 200 people in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 shook Sikkim and parts of West Bengal killing over 100 people.

Another quake in 2017, with a magnitude 5.7, struck 20 km northeast of Ambassa in Tripura’s Dhalai district.

Disaster Management authorities are regularly conducting awareness campaigns about the frequent quakes in the northeastern states.

--IANS

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Source: IANS