Medium-intensity earthquake strikes Delhi, adjoining areas; 3rd amid Covid-19 lockdown

Delhi and its adjoining area were hit by a 3.4 magnitude earthquake on Sunday.

Tremors were felt in parts of the national and the adjoining areas on Sunday afternoon after a medium-intensity earthquake struck Delhi.

Of the four seismic zones in the country, Delhi falls under the fourth-highest zone.(Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

According to the National Centre of Seismology, the earthquake measured 3.4-magnitude on the Richter scale and had its epicentre in Wazirpur, northeast Delhi. No casualty or loss of property has been reported. The quake occurred at a depth of five kilometres.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted out saying he is “praying for everyone’s safety”. 

This is the third earthquake in the national capital amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Delhi had witnessed two back-to-back incidents of low-intensity earthquakes in April with same location and nearby areas as the epicentre .

On April 13, a moderate intensity quake of magnitude 3.5 hit the national capital at a depth of 8 km. The very next day, another low-intensity earthquake of magnitude 2.7 shook parts of Delhi. The earthquake, with its epicentre near Wazirpur in northeast Delhi, occurred at 1.26 pm at a shallow depth of 5 km, said JL Gautam, Head (Operations) at NCS, an institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Of the four seismic zones in the country - Zone II, III, IV, V - Delhi falls under ‘Zone IV’. “Of these, Zone V is seismically the most active region, while zone II is the least,” says a release on country’s seismic zones by the Ministry of Earth Science.

Zone - V comprises entire northeastern India, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, part of North Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Zone - IV covers remaining parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Sikkim, Northern Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west coast and Rajasthan.

Zone – III comprises Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep islands, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. Zone - II covers remaining parts of the country.

The national capital is vulnerable to earthquakes but it is rare for it to be the epicentre of a quake. Delhi, however, experiences tremors when a quake hits regions as far as central Asia or the Himalayan ranges, known to be a high-seismic zone.