Hyderabad: It was the dead of night when the residents of Suryapet, Kodad and Nalgonda districts felt a sudden movement under the ground, who then came out to learn that the district had been hit by an earthquake. A minor earthquake of 4.7 magnitude hit Raghunathapalem in Nalgonda and the tremors were felt in Mahbubabad, Jayasha-nkar Bhupalpally and in Warangal city.
The tremors were experienced in parts of the erstwhile Warangal district on Sunday at about 2.35 am. Residents said that they experienced movement of earth with a loud sound.
“I heard a loud sound as if someone was banging on my front door. I suddenly woke up, experiencing movement underneath me,” said Perumandla Madhusudhan, a resident of Shambunipet. “I realised it was an earthquake and came outside the house, along with my family. All the colony residents too rushed outside. It was a scary experience as it is very rare to experience an earthquake in Warangal,” he said.
However, the impact of the seismic activity was not just limited to the neighbouring districts. According to officials of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), there were tremors felt up to Hyderabad as well. This earthquake, which measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, took place at 2.37 am in the wee hours of Sunday. “I had felt walls of the building move for a few seconds, when the earthquake took place. Fortuna-tely, no untoward incident took place. Since most people in my building were fast asleep, there were few people who felt the vibrations,” said Vijay Gopal, a resident of Tarnaka.
Similarly, even residents of Yapral, parts of Secunderabad and Dammaiguda, reported to have felt the quake. People in places like Begumpet and Punjagutta also experienced the mild earthquake for three seconds.
“The earthquake measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, and the activity took place at least seven kilometers beneath the earth’s surface,” Dr D. Srinagesh, chief scientist, CSIR-NGRI told Deccan Chronicle.
As it turns out, the main earthquake was followed by 26 aftershocks. “Since the aftershocks were of next-to-negligible magnitude, they were not felt as evidently as the quake,” he added. The earthquake was a result of the Indian Tecto-nic Plate colliding with Eu-rasian Tectonic Plate. “The Indian plate is moving towards the Eurasian plate at a pace of five centimeters per annum. Whenever there is such a movement the energy generated from the collision is released onto the surface,” he said.
The buildings are, however, made to withstand such forces. “There will only be a building collapse if the quake measures six or higher on the Richter scale. This, provided that the buildings are built in line with the Bureau of Indian Standards’ guidelines,” he added. The tremors were register in various areas of Krishna and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. People from Jaggaiahpet and Nandigama said they had experienced the tremors. District officials cautioned tahsildars to be alert in early ours of Monday.
In the past, the city had witnessed a mild earthquake in October 2016 that affected place like Padmavathi Colony, Devaiah Basthi and other places in Borabanda. With that being the most recent one, there were four other quakes that took place in and around the city. The first one was in 1843, which measured 3.7 on Richter scale, the second in 1876 and had measured 5.0 on Richter scale, the third occurred at Gandipet in 1982 measuring 3.2 and the fourth at Medchal in 1983 measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale.
