New Delhi: The 6.6 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday night which killed at least 11 people in Pakistan and injured scores of others has brought back the grim memories of the Turkey quake of Feb. 6 in which thousands of people were killed. Tuesday's earthquake which had its epicenter in Afghanistan was felt as far as Delhi creating panic among the residents.
While no loss of life or property was reported in the national capital, the frequent tremors have triggered a debate on how vulnerable is Delhi to quakes. According to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Delhi is located in zone IV meaning which has fairly high seismicity where the general occurrence of earthquakes is of 5-6 magnitude, a few of magnitude 6-7 and occasionally of 7-8 magnitude.
Also read: 11 killed as strong earthquake rattles Pakistan, Afghanistan
In other words, Delhi thus lies among the high-risk areas in terms of earthquakes. As per the DDMA website, the high seismicity is due to collision of the Indian plate with Eurasian plate, which is a continuous process happening for the last 50 million years. These colliding plates flex, storing energy like a spring, and when the plate's margin finally slip to release energy, an earthquake results.
At the national level, India is divided into four seismic zones form 2 to 5 in the increasing order of the seismicity. While Zone 2 is considered the least dangerous, Zone 5 is considered the most dangerous.
Seismic Zone 2: This zone is considered to be the least dangerous zone where earthquakes up to 4.9 magnitude can occur. Cities like Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Chandigarh are included in this zone.
Seismic Zone 3: States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand come under this zone with probability of magnitude 7 earthquake or less.
Seismic Zone 4: The intensity of earthquake in this zone can be from 7.9 to 8. Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Delhi-NCR, UP-Bihar and northern areas of West Bengal, some areas of Gujarat, areas of Rajasthan and Maharashtra adjacent to the west coast, Uttarakhand, some areas of Himachal Pradesh are in this zone.
Seismic Zone 5: It is considered the most dangerous zone. Under this comes North Bihar, some areas of Uttarakhand, Northeast region, Kutch, Himachal and some parts of Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are included in the zone.
