Earthquake In Delhi-NCR: Why Earthquakes Happen And How They Are Measured? Check Facts

Earthquake: Strong earthquake tremors were felt in Delhi-NCR and parts of North India on Tuesday. The earthquake occurred around 1:30 PM and barely lasted a short while. According to the National Centre for Seismology, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 jolted Doda in Jammu and Kashmir and caused powerful tremors throughout north India.

No immediate damage or casualties have been reported as of now. Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jammu and Kashmir, and other regions nearby, felt the earthquake’s shocks. Initial reports said that the earthquake’s tremors were so powerful that they could be felt in far-off locations including Islamabad, Lahore, and surrounding Pakistani regions.

Why earthquakes happen?

A slide along a fault (a connection between two tectonic plates) is a primary source of earthquakes; these earthquakes are known as inter-plate earthquakes. Intra-plate earthquakes are those that occasionally take place within tectonic plates.

The asthenosphere is a layer that lies underneath the tectonic plates that are seen on the surface of the planet and have long-term fluid-like properties. The asthenosphere convects as a result of the earth’s core’s high temperature and pressure, which in turn causes the tectonic plates to move. 

Long-term friction between the plates causes the buildup of strain energy within the faults. 

Additionally, as the material reaches a limit, the flaws collide, releasing a significant quantity of strain energy. An earthquake caused this unexpected leak.

Earthquake and expected aftershock

Several slight tremors occur after a large-magnitude earthquake. For instance, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 in Turkey was followed by another with a magnitude of 7.5 nine hours later. Although one may have caused the other, Srinagesh Davuluri, a professor of physics at IIT Madras and a former director of the Seismology Laboratory at the CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, emphasised that this earthquake was not an aftershock.

Aftershocks are successive earthquakes that happen on the same fault. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey occurred on the East Anatolian Fault, while the 7.5-magnitude earthquake occurred on a nearby sub-fault of the same East Anatolian Fault System.

How are earthquakes measured?

It’s general knowledge that an earthquake’s size, or magnitude, corresponds to how severe it is. The intensity of the earthquake at each place, as opposed to its magnitude, which is determined at the source, is a better predictor of damage.

It is crucial to distinguish between magnitude and intensity because, despite their relationship, they are two separate measurements. A measure of an earthquake’s energy release is its magnitude. The wave’s amplitude, the extent of the rupture at the source, the amount the fault has “slipped,” and the characteristics of the rock in the rupture zone are among the considerations.