Various parts in north India intensely felt the impact of the major earthquake which occurred in the Hindukush mountain range due to the presence of soft sediments across the Indo-Gangetic plain.
There was significant energy release following the large 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which occurred at a depth of 200 km from the surface. The ground shook for quite some time in the wake of the temblor, according to D. Sri Nagesh, Chief Scientist and Head of the Seismological Observatory at CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute here.
He said that the felt area was quite large due to efficient transmission of the earthquake waves in soils with soft sediment. Reports that it was felt came in from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, western parts of Bihar and even in Ahmedabad and Vadodra. Kathmandu valley and Sikkim also experienced the tremors.
Mr. Sri Nagesh said that Hindukush mountain range was one of the three regions in the world where earthquakes of intermediate depth occur.
According to N. Purnachander Rao, Chief Seismologist the Hindukush was a seismically active region where deep earthquakes of a few hundred kilometres occur unlike the shallow temblors (10-20 km depth) that occur in the Himalayan arc region. Normally, the impact of the earthquakes that occur very deep would get reduced by the time the waves travel to the surface.
