Mild tremors were felt in some parts of Prakasam district on Wednesday morning. Panic-stricken people came out of their houses in some areas in Ongole, including Nirmal nagar and Seetaramapuram and in Chimakurthi, Addanki, Inkollu, Santamagaluru and Martur after household articles moved from their places at about 6 a.m.
No damage to property was reported. People in other areas did not feel any tremors. Allaying the fears of public, officials said the tremors were part of “natural seismicity”.
The Ongole region comes under the moderate damage risk zone. The Ongole region faced 12 earthquakes in the past 30 years, including two major ones in 1967 and 1959, with magnitudes of 5.4 and 5 respectively.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the National Geophysical Research Institute have jointly installed a GPS-based instrument at C.S.R. Sarma college in Ongole recently to study the rate at which tectonic plate moved.
