3.1 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Haryana's Faridabad, Tremors Felt Across Delhi-NCR

Earthquake tremors were felt across Delhi-NCR after a 3.1 magnitude quake hit Haryana’s Faridabad on Sunday afternoon.

As per the National Center for Seismology, a 3.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Faridabad region with a depth of 10 km at 4:08 PM.  It said the epicentre for the quake was nine kilometres east of Faridabad and 30 kilometres southeast of Delhi.

Delhi-NCR Trembles Twice in 15 Days, Why Capital Frequently Experiences Earthquakes | Explained

The quake triggered panic among people, with many in Delhi and the National Capital Region reporting vigorous shaking of furniture.

Several social media users shared visuals of people rushing out of residential buildings.

The last time residents of Delhi-NCR felt tremors was on October 3 when an earthquake measuring 6.2 magnitude hit Nepal. The earthquake was recorded with epicentre at Talkot area of Bajhang district, 700 km west of Kathmandu, at 2.40 p.m., the National Seismological Centre said.

Earlier in the day, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck western Afghanistan, killing one and injuring dozens more in the same region where more than 1,000 people died in tremors last week. Residents in the city of Herat had just begun returning to their homes again when the quake hit, after days of sleeping outside fearing aftershocks from last week’s tremors.

The US Geological Survey said Sunday’s quake hit around 8:00 am (local time) with an epicentre 33 kilometres northwest of Herat city, the capital of the namesake western province, and was followed by aftershocks of magnitudes 5.4 and 4.2. The earthquakes on Oct. 7 flattened whole villages in Herat, in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history. More than 90 per cent of the people killed a week ago were women and children, U.N. officials reported Thursday.

The Taliban-led government said more than 1,000 people were killed in last week’s tremors, while the World Health Organization (WHO) put the figure at nearly 1,400 late Saturday.

According to Director O P Mishra of the National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, India is located in a seismically active region. But with a lot of microearthquakes occurring every day, the stored-up energy gets released, he added.

Experts say the impact of a large-scale earthquake can be reduced if people and institutions strictly comply with the bylaws and codes to build resilient structures.

They say the resonant frequency of a building can play a critical role in determining the level of damage that it experiences during an earthquake.

Buildings have natural frequencies of vibration, also known as resonant frequencies, which are determined by their mass, stiffness and size. The ground motion during an earthquake can excite these natural frequencies, causing the building to vibrate at its resonant frequency.

If the frequency of the ground motion matches or is more than the resonant frequency of a building, the structure will experience significant amplifications of the ground motion, leading to more intense shaking and potentially causing significant damage.

(With PTI inputs)