Earthquakes in Northeast: 16 major tremors recorded in NE in last 20 years
Northeast falls in seismic zone V in the seismic zoning map of India, the highest seismically active zone.
The 5.2 magnitude quake in Goalpara district of Assam on Wednesday morning is a grim reminder of the vulnerability of the Northeast to earthquakes.
Northeast falls in seismic zone V in the seismic zoning map of India, the highest seismically active zone.
The earthquake occurred around 20 km at the western side of the North-South trending Dhubri Fault of Assam. No damage of structure or casualty reported from the region.
The occurrence of the Goalpara tremor is found located at a distance of about 250 km in the southwest of the Sonitpur earthquake (Magnitude 6.4) that rocked the Northeast on April 28 at 17 km depth, which signifies two different source ruptures associated with varying amounts of structural heterogeneities.
According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the assimilated intensity of the Goalpara earthquake suggests that the source zone is associated with a strong degree of shaking of intensity and gradually died out by assuming value from the slight to weak.
“The high seismicity of the northeast Indian region has been attributed to a complex tectonic province displaying juxtaposition of the E–W trending Himalaya and the N–S trending Arakan Yoma belt,” a release issued by NCS read.
At present, 21 Seismological observatories of NCS are functioning in the Northeast whose data, along with the remaining observatories, have been used for locating the earthquake.
According to NCS, in the last 20 years, as many as 16 earthquake events of magnitude 5.0 and above have been recorded within the 200 km radius from Goalpara.
Here is the list of past earthquake events of Magnitude 5.0 and above in the Northeast
Major Tectonic Plates
The major tectonic background includes the eastern Himalayan structures, the Mishmi massif, the Indo Myanmar arc, the Brahmaputra valley, and the Shillong plateau.
The Himalayan structures mainly consist of the thrust planes, namely, the Main Central Thrust (MCT), Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), Main Frontal Thrust (MFT), and their subsidiaries.
(Edited by Ibankyntiew Mawrie)
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