Just one week into the month of March, but it's already proving as ‘shaky' as it has been since the dawn of New Year!
January alone had delivered nine such events and February three, mainly along the Kashmir-Xinjiang border, according to latest statistics.
QUAKES MARCH!
The six days of March have seen as many such episodes, with the latest measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale (M5.5) being reported on Tuesday at Nicobar Islands.
The next strongest was the M4.9 (M5.2 according to US Geological Survey) recorded along the Haryana-Delhi border only the previous day.
In all, five tremors measuring in excess of M4.5 have been reported during this period from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lies close to the Pacific Rim of Fire.
Just to the east-southeast, the Indonesian archipelago, which sits exactly on this Rim of Fire, was rocked no less than seven times.
This included the M7.3 around Northern Sumatra on January 10 triggering a tsunami alert, which was subsequently withdrawn.
CUTS BOTH WAYS
Importantly, six of the seven episodes recorded around Indonesia measured in excess of M5.
Speaking to Business Line , Mr Sampurnananda Mohapatra, Senior Specialist (Earthquake and Tsunami), National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), said these incidents have a positive and negative ring about it depending on the way one chose to look at them.
It would lead to release of accumulated energy and stress from the ‘caterpillar-like movement' of the Arabian Sea plate against the Eurasian Plate.
On the negative side, it could also be taken as a harbinger of major shock in future, the possibility of which in north India is not being ruled out. “We should be concerned more with the quake mitigation that needs utmost attention but is usually given a short shrift by the concerned,” Mr Mohapatra said.