JOIN USPeople in Kanakapura, Ramanagara and areas on the periphery of western parts of Bangalore made frantic calls to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) office in the City on Sunday morning, saying they felt tremors in the earth around 3 am.
Officials in the Met department said they received calls from many people that they felt the earth beneath was shaking.
Some even reported that there was an earthquake and they spent anxious hours standing outside their homes, fearing that buildings may collapse. But IMD officials have not recorded any seismic event on their weather bulletin.
IMD-Bangalore director B Puttanna said: “Nothing has been recorded on the Richter scale of the IMD. It is possible that people could have felt a tremor because of the ongoing stone-blasting, mining and quarrying in the surrounding hillocks and ground areas.
“A tremor is something like a vibration which people experience when a fast-moving train passes by. So we request people to give us the exact location and time of the tremor they felt. Details will be sent to our centre in New Delhi for investigation.”
According to Prof T G Sitharam of the Earth Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Science, it is possible that an earthquake may occur in these areas, especially towards Mysore, Maddur and beyond. These are areas of minor earthquake concentration. It has happened in the past and is likely even now. But it will not be of a great magnitude, like above four.
“This is because of natural geological dislocation in the earth below the Cauvery and Arkavathy. This means that the area (upper earth plates) has fault that can lead to earthquakes. Peninsular India is usually considered to be very stable otherwise.”
For an earthquake to be recorded on the strong Richter scale, it should be at least three in magnitude, but in case of broadband Richter scale, even minor ones can be recorded, he added.