5.3 magnitude earthquake hits Telangana; termors felt in Andhra too

Hyderabad: Parts of Telangana on Wednesday morning witnessed mild tremors due to an earthquake with a 5.3 magnitude on the Richter scale. The National Centre for Seismology had identified Mulugu, in north Telangana, as the epicenter of the earthquake.

The National Centre for Seismology classified the earthquake, which occurred at a depth of 40 kilometers, as a moderate earthquake. People panicked and fled their offices and homes in most parts of Mulugu as they experienced the morning tremors. For a brief moment, they remained oblivious to the tremors beneath their feet, while the buildings shook. However, no damage to property or life was reported. A few places in Andhra Pradesh in and around Vijayawada too felt the tremors but with less intensity.

Mogullapalli, Parakala, Shayampet Nadikuda, and Regonda, mandals experienced tremors. Warangal, Kothagudem, Bhadrachalam, Khammam, BHEL, RC Puram, and Sangareddy also experienced these tremors. Majority areas in the Karimnagar district—Peddapalli, Manthani, Sultanabad, Husnabad, Odela, Godavarikhani, Ramagiri, Chigurumamidi, and other places—also reported the tremors.

A preliminary report of the National Centre for Seismology said, an earthquake of magnitude M 5.3 occurred at 07:27:02 IST on December 4 in Mulugu district, with its epicentre at 18.44°N and 80.24°E and a focal depth of 40 km.

“The epicentre was approximately 85 km northeast of Warangal (Telangana), 65 km southwest of Bijapur (Chhattisgarh), 218 km northwest of Hyderabad, and 212 km north of Vijayawada. The epicentre of the earthquake lies within the North West-South East Godavari Fault, which is a major normal fault in the region,” said the preliminary report.

According to another analysis, the epicentre location of the earthquake is limited to the Godavari fault system and its vicinity, which has been the site of several previous earthquakes. This zone of strain energy release, which occurs at the deeper layers, is what caused the lesser degree of shaking than expected due to the dissipation of maximum seismic energy at the deeper depth. Mulugu falls under seismic zone III whereas major other parts of Telangana falls under zone II.

“An earthquake of 5.3 M occurred at 7:27 am today, epicentered in the Godavari fault system at 40 km focal depth. Lesser shaking due to dissipation of seismic energy at deeper depths. No damages reported and district administration on high alert, especially for aftershocks,” said Telangana's special chief secretary, revenue (disaster management), Arvind Kumar.

As per EarthquakeList.org, which provides reliable earthquake data sourced from multiple organizations, a total of 17 earthquakes with a magnitude of four or above have struck within 300 km (186 mi) of Telangana in the past 10 years. This comes down to a yearly average of 1 earthquake per year. But no earthquake was of the same magnitude as Wednesday's.

A long time ago, a magnitude of 6.2 earthquake struck on September 30, 1993, at 03:55, 226 kilometers (140 mi) east-northeast of Hyderabad. It was the strongest earthquake near Telangana in the past 124 years, said Earthquakelist.org who's data goes back to January 1, 1900.