Kolkata : Strong tremors were felt across Kolkata and several adjoining districts of West Bengal on Friday after a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Bangladesh. According to initial reports, the shaking lasted a few seconds, with people in several parts of the city, including office complexes, reporting swaying furniture and vibrations in structures.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or property damage. Earthquake alerts received by some residents indicated seismic activity of around magnitude 5, with the epicentre located roughly 80 kilometres from the city. Residents across multiple neighbourhoods reported ceiling fans swaying, furniture shaking and windows rattling, with the impact felt more strongly in high-rise buildings.
Several people took to social media to describe the panic, saying their buildings shook significantly during the tremors. “For the first time I witnessed an earthquake…. That feel literally shook the land and the fans suddenly begins its roll & started shaking!!! Hoping Safety for everyone,” a user Faisal Ahmed wrote on X. Earthquakes can occur anywhere between the Earth’s surface and about 700 kilometres below the surface. For scientific purposes, this earthquake depth range of 0 – 700 km is divided into three zones: shallow, intermediate, and deep, as per USGS data.
Shallow earthquakes are between 0 and 70 km deep; intermediate earthquakes, 70 – 300 km deep; and deep earthquakes, 300 – 700 km deep. In general, the term “deep-focus earthquakes” is applied to earthquakes deeper than 70 km, the USGS states. Earlier today, an earthquake of magnitude 2.7 on the Richter Scale struck Namchi in Sikkim, the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said. According to the NCS, the earthquake occurred at 12:02:43 IST at a depth of 5 kilometres and the epicentre was located at latitude 27.36 N and longitude 88.37 E.
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