When the Himalayas shake, shivers run down North India, even if the tremor is moderate.

Described by seismologists as a ‘tectonic episode, the Monday night tremor, measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale with its epicentre at Gupth Kashi in Úttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district, could be felt as far away as the Capital and Haryana.

This is the third quake to strike the State, coming after nearly two decades. A 6.8 magnitude quake rocked Uttarkashi in October 1991. It was followed by one of the same intensity in March 1999, with the epicentre at Chamoli.

There is enough scientific understanding that the Himalayan region is seismically active and the possibility of a massive earthquake is very real. The collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates, which has been ongoing for millions of years, has been a cause of the heightened seismic activity in the region.

Indeed, the world’s tallest mountain range is in itself the result of the thrusting of the plates, pushing up the Himalayas. So far, however, the tremors have been essentially in the nature of release of latent strains in the earth’s interiors. “In the past hundred years there has been no major earthquake in the Uttarakhand area in the foothills of the Himalayas and there is a build up of stress, which makes it a highly stressed location. Moderate intensity quakes are a way of release of this energy,” said Srinagesh, a senior seismologist with the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad.

The NGRI has three seismic observatory stations in Almora and Rudraprayag districts. Reports from there state that the ground shook but caused little or no damage. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 14 km, he told BusinessLine .

In contrast, the 7.8 Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) earthquake of April 1905 killed over 20,000 people. The 1934 temblor on the Nepal-Bihar border, measured 8, causing widespread damage including 19,000 killed. The April 2015 7.9 magnitude quake flattened buildings and killed over 20,000 people.

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