Earthquake in Delhi-NCR: Strong quake cannot be ruled out, says WIHG

Earthquake in Delhi-NCR: In the wake of the recent series of tremors in Delhi-NCR, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has said that such tremors are not unusual in the Delhi-NCR region. It indicates that strain energy is built up in the region and a strong earthquake cannot be ruled out, WIHG said.

The agency report issued by the Ministry of Science & Technology says, "The Delhi-NCR has been identified as the second highest seismic hazard zone (Zone IV). Sometimes, a vulnerable zone remains quiet, experiences small magnitude earthquakes that do not indicate any bigger earthquake, or receives a sudden jolt by a big earthquake without any call. Out of 14 small magnitude earthquakes in the Delhi-NCR, the 29th May Rohtak earthquake had the magnitude of 4.6."

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It further adds that the recent events cannot be defined as the ‘foreshocks’. If a big earthquake takes place in a region, all smaller events that occurred in the immediate past at that region are categorized as the foreshocks. Therefore, scientifically all these tremors in the Delhi-NCR can be demarcated as the foreshocks only after a big earthquake takes place immediately. 

Though it cannot be predicted, a stronger earthquake posing a threat to people and properties cannot be ruled out. Since an earthquake cannot be predicted by any mechanism, the tremors cannot be described as the signal of a big event, it added.

The report has a message to the common people discussing about the precaution that says, "Earthquakes are not predictable but there lies a probability of a large to great earthquake with magnitude 6 and more in the highest seismic potential zone V and IV, which fall in the entire Himalaya and Delhi-NCR. The only solution to minimise the loss of lives and properties is the effective preparedness against the earthquake."