(Eagle News) — A magnitude 6 quake rocked northeastern India, with its epicenter located in the state of Assam where it caused some damage to buildings on Wednesday, April 28. There were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries.
“The quake hit at a shallow depth of 10 km beneath the epicenter near Dhekiajuli, Sonitpur, Assam, India, in the morning on Wednesday 28 April 2021 at 7:21 am local time,” according to the website volcano discovery.com.
The shallower the earthquake, the more strongly it is felt.
The quake in India which is currently at the throes of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Assam state, the quake’s epicenter, the COVID-19 reproduction rate is where it is reported at its highest, at 2.45 percent.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the quake had a magnitude of 6.0 with the epicenter located at nine kilometers north northwest of Dhekiajuli in Assam, India. The epicenter was in a hilly region near India’s border with Bhutan.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported the same quake at magnitude 6.2.
According to the USGS, the 6.0-magnitude quake hit at a relatively shallow depth of 29 kilometers,
The town of Dhekiajuli which is the town nearest the epicenter is in a tea-growing district of northern Assam.
Residents in the state capital, Guwahati, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) to the south said the quake shook buildings and left many cracks in walls. They said several aftershocks were also felt.
The quake badly shook Tezpur, a city of 100,000 people, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the epicentre. Residents said many people poured onto the streets and some buildings were damaged.
The tremor and aftershocks were felt hundreds of kilometres away in the northern state of Bengal.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)