A moderate earthquake measuring 4.4 on Richter scale jolted parts of coastal areas in Saurashtra region on Saturday afternoon. The officials said no damage or any casualty was reported from any of the places hit by the tremors.
According to the Institute of Seismological Research (ISM) in Gandhinagar, the epicenter of the earthquake was 50 km in Arabian sea from Mangrol town in Porbandar district. The first earthquake struck at 12:23 pm while tremors were felt in many places a few minutes later on 12.30 p.m. The origin of the tremors was also located in the mid sea near Mangrol.
The third tremor was of much lighter 1.6 intensity, centered 31 km from Bhachau in Kutch district.
This is the third earthquake measuring over 4.0 magnitude to have happened this year in Gujarat. In July, a 4.7 magnitude quake struck Surat in South Gujarat, while a 4.0 earthquake was recorded in March at Bhachau in Kutch.
The places which were jolted includes Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Jetpur, Dhoraji and parts of Rajkot district.
So far in 2016, as many as 60 tremors have been felt in various parts of the state, which had witnessed a massive earthquake in 2001 which killed almost 20,000 people and had devastated dozens of towns and hundreds of villages in the state.
