Articles by "Earth Quake"
Showing posts with label Earth Quake. Show all posts


Pune, Jun 20 :  An earthquake of magnitude 4.8 shook parts of Satara district in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, an official said.

The epicentre of the quake, which occurred around 7.47 am, was recorded at a depth of 10 km, the official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) centre here said.

No casualty or damage to property has been reported so far, an official from Satara district administration said.

Satara is located around 120 km from Pune.                    [Agencies]


Palghar, Mar 1 :  Tremors of 4.3 magnitude jolted parts of Palghar district in Maharashtra on Friday, an official said.

The intensity of tremors is the highest recorded in the region since November last year, the official said.

Parts of Palghar district, especially Dahanu and Talasari talukas, have been experiencing such tremors routinely since November. The last round of tremors was witnessed on February 20.

"Today, the tremors were experienced at 11.14 am. It measured 4.3 on the Richter scale, which is the maximum for the last four months," Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) chief Santosh Kadam said.

"The epicentre was once again Dundalwadi village in Dahanu taluka, which has become the worst affected region as far as tremors are concerned," he added.

The tremors were recorded by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Due to the constant fear of earthquake, residents of the villages in Dahanu and Talasari talukas have been spending day out of the house and taking shelter in makeshift tents.

On February 1 alone, the region had witnessed at least half a dozen tremors ranging between 3 and 4.1 on the Richter scale, causing immense panic among the residents.

The district administration has been conducting awareness programmes in some villages in the district to tell people about the precautionary measures to be taken during such emergency.
          [Agencies]


Shimla, Jan 12 : A low-intensity earthquake shook Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district on Saturday. No loss of life or property was reported.

Meteorological Centre, Shimla, Director Manmohan Singh said, "An earthquake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale was recorded at 12.31 pm. The epicentre was at a depth of 5 km in northeast of Chamba district, mild tremors were felt in adjoining areas." 

Most parts of Himachal, including Chamba, fall in seismic sensitive zone.           PTI

Wani (Indonesia), Oct 3: He survived the earthquake and tsunami, yet days have passed since. Taking refuge on the shaded porch of an empty house, Darjan didn't feel relief as he looked out at the mix of broken concrete and shattered lumber that littered the narrow street cutting through his village.

"No help has come at all," he seethed.

Residents of smaller villages suffering from the lack of food, medical attention, fuel and shelter are angry that aid hasn't arrived in the days since Friday's earthquake and tsunami. Indonesia's government has struggled to help those who need it after such a large-scale disaster, and relief efforts have focused on the city of Palu, the provincial capital. For days authorities acknowledged they had little idea about the plight of those in three outlying regencies, home to some 1.2 million people.

In the fishing village of Wani, 33-year-old Darjan, who uses one name, said he and his family were safe, but they had lost their home.

"This banana is all we have left," he said Tuesday, nodding at the half-eaten piece of fruit in his hand.

As information from Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Muntong regencies has started to trickle in, residents in their cutoff townships and villages many closer to the quake's epicenter are pleading for help and saying they are being overlooked by rescuers focusing their efforts on the city.

"Pay attention to Donggala, Mr. Jokowi. Pay attention to Donggala," one resident in Donggala town yelled in footage broadcast on local television, referring to Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. "There are still a lot of unattended villages here, not only Palu. There are lots of villages in Donggala." Yet even in Palu there was desperation, with signs propped along roads reading "We Need Food" and "We Need Support" and children begging in the streets.

Overwhelmed by the crisis, Jokowi has authorized for the country to accept international help. The government said it has nearly 6,400 rescue personnel taking part in the operation and said it still needs time to take care of all of the problems.

Donggala is a sprawling regency that sits on both sides of a narrow bay, where the shores were devastated by tsunami waves as high as 6 meters (almost 20 feet). Officials have said that assessing the damage there has been made difficult by downed communication lines and impassable roads.

In Wani, villagers said the seawater receded after the earthquake and was quickly followed by an "extraordinary wave" that hit the shore. Buildings along the coast appeared to have either disappeared, with their tin roofs flattened to the ground, or been obliterated into ruins.

The waves washed fishing boats ashore and a large passenger ship sits on dry land pinned against a building. A green-roofed mosque stands intact, surrounded by wreckage from destroyed homes.

Darjan estimated at least 30 people in Wani have died. The official toll of at least 1,234 dead is acknowledged to be low and not yet include those from the outlying, harder-to-reach localities.

He said there was an urgent need for food and medicine in Wani, to which another resident, Muhamad Tofik agreed, saying many children were hungry and sick because there was no milk or medicine.
 (AP)

Jakarta, Oct 2: A shallow 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern coast of Indonesia's Sumba island on Tuesday morning, the US Geological Survey said.

The quake hit at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres around 40 kilometres off Sumba, an island of some 750,000 people.

Sumba lies some 1,600 kilometres to the south of Sulawesi island which was struck by a devastating quake and tsunami on Friday which killed more than 800 people.
 (AFP)

Jakarta, Sep 29: At least 48 people were killed by a quake-tsunami in an Indonesian city, the country's disaster agency said Saturday, announcing its first official death toll.


The agency added that another 356 people were injured in Palu on Sulawesi island where waves as high as 1.5 metres (five feet) slammed into the city of about 350,000 people. (AFP)

Jakarta, Sep 29: Thirty bodies are lying at one Indonesian hospital after a quake and tsunami struck Sulawesi island, smashing into a city of 350,000 people, a hospital official told a TV station.

"There are 30 dead at our hospital. And cases where we need to operate or need specialists to handle 12, head trauma nine," Komang Adi Sujendra told Metro TV.
 (AFP)

Killari (Maha), Sep 13: Aarti Kalpekar was only one-and-a-half-month-old when her family house in Killari village in Latur district of Maharashtra collapsed when a devastating earthquake ravaged the region in the wee hours of September 30, 1993, just after the Ganesh festival.

Aarti was sleeping with her parents and was stuck in the debris of their house following the devastating temblor.

Though she and her mother survived, the quake claimed her father's life.

For her mother, Sunita, who was abandoned by her in-laws following her husband's death, Aarti was the only reason to forget her trauma. With the baby in tow, she moved to her maternal house in Ambulga village in the district and tried to stitch together torn pieces of her life.

"My mother lived to ensure my well-being and my growth as a good and responsible human being. I was very good at studies and despite my aim to be an engineer, I could not get admission since the fees were not affordable. After doing MA, I completed DEd and now I work as a teacher," Aarti said.

Although she is not aware of the hardships her mother went through and the trauma faced by the people in the last 25 years, Aarti said women in rural areas are empowered after the crisis strikes them.

Her mother Sunita said she was married for less than two years when the disaster struck them in the form of the quake.

"My nails came off when I was being pulled out of the debris. The earthquake struck at around 3.45 am and I was taken out around 9.30 am. After the quake, the tremors were felt till about 11 am. I was thrown out of the house, with the family asking why I survived while my husband could not," Sunita said.

Around 52 villages in Latur-Osmanabad region were destroyed by the earthquake, which measured 6.4 on the Richter scale. Approximately 10,000 people died, while thousands of others were injured in the disaster. Killari was the epicentre of that earthquake.

Sunita said over the years, she has overcome the trauma and set up a laundry and tailoring unit with the help of loan obtained from the self help groups (SHGs).

"I earn enough to sustain myself and my daughter. I married her off to my relative and they stay close to me. I had got Rs 25,000 compensation for being a quake survivor. I put that money in fixed deposit. Now, my husband's family have cordial relations with me," she said.

Another survivor, 84-year-old Shankar Padsalgi, the then sarpanch of Killari village said, "You can't move ahead in life without defeating all the obstacles. You have no other option."

"About eight families (in the village) were completely wiped out. The crisis was unprecedented. Heavy rains affected the relief and rehabilitation work. For six months, families lived under a single tent.

"When the reconstruction of houses started, there were lots of complaints about shoddy construction. Local authorities did not bother. The then Chief Minister Sharad Pawar intervened and then those structures were pulled down and fresh construction started," he recalled.

Dr Ashok Potdar (69), current deputy sarpanch of Killari who has been practising medicine there since 1976 said, "I had read in literature about darkness being the symbol of fear, mystery or evil. I got to experience this when disaster struck around 3.45 am on September 30, 1993."

"I had just retired to bed some hours ago after attending to my patients in the hospital. As the earth around me shook, I woke up. It was so dark that I couldn't see my hand. Heard cries, but after some time when I came out, everything fell silent," he said.

"There was death and destruction around. My hospital buildng was made of bricks, hence did not suffer much damage except that there were several cracks. Even though I was fortunate to be alive, I lost 14 members of my extended family," he recalled with tears in eyes.

The rural primary health care centre at Killari was functional at that time, Potdar said adding that he came out to direct the survivors to the centre as his hospital was already full of patients.

Subhash Lohar, another resident of Killari recounted how his family suffered in the last 25 years.

He said his family owned a huge mansion with nine acres of agriculture land. The mansion, which was in the name of his parents, suffered huge damages in the quake. He and his brothers lived separately nearby with their respective families and all had come together in their parents' home for the Ganesh festival.

He said he got a two-room house after living for five years in a transit camp, while his mother and father got four room tenements each. But, ten years ago, the tenement in his mother's name was taken back by the local authorities and sealed.

"Now the house is illegally occupied by some other people. We cannot do anything. My parents passed away after a long battle to reclaim the house," he said.

Lohar said not all the survivors have got the ownership of reconstructed houses and certificates of being earthquake-affected.

However, despite battling hardships, none of the survivors have lost hope.

As Aarti puts it, "Rural people know that they have the grit and determination to succeed."
 (PTI)

New Delhi, Sep 10: A medium-intensity earthquake hit Haryana's Jhajjar district and its tremors were also felt in the national capital for the second time in less than 24 hours, the National Centre For Seismology said.

The quake occurred at 6.28 am at a depth of 10 km and had a magnitude of 3.7, it said.

It occurred in Jhajjar district and the tremors were also felt in the national capital, the NCS added.
 (PTI)

Tokyo, Sep 8: The death toll from a powerful quake that triggered landslides in northern Japan rose to 30 Saturday, as tens of thousands of rescue workers raked through the mud for survivors.

The majority of the dead are from the small rural town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed from the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape.

Around nine people are still unaccounted for in the town and around 400 sustained minor injuries, according to the local government of the northern Hokkaido island.

"We never had landslides here," said Akira Matsushita who lost his brother in Atsuma.

"I couldn't believe until I saw it with my own eyes," he told TV Asahi.

"When I saw it, I knew no one could survive."

Some 40,000 rescue workers, including Self-Defense Forces drafted in specially, were searching for survivors with the aid of bulldozers, sniffer dogs and 75 helicopters, according to the top government spokesman.

"They're doing their best around the clock," Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

All three million households on Hokkaido island lost power when Thursday's quake damaged a thermal plant supplying electricity to the region, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said power was mostly restored.

"Thanks to hard work to boost power supply throughout the night, the number of households without power has declined to 20,000," Abe told a cabinet meeting to discuss the quake.

Abe added the government would release emergency funds to deliver food, water and fuel needed for power generators at hospitals.

A total of 31,000 households still have no water and around 16,000 people have evacuated to shelters.

The earthquake also collapsed a handful of houses and walls in the main regional city of Sapporo but considering the strength of the quake, the death toll was relatively light, with the majority of victims coming from the landslide in Atsuma.

International flights at the main airport in Sapporo resumed operations on Saturday, while bullet trains began service the day before.

The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country.

Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport.

Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0-magnitude quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives.
 (AFP)

Tokyo, Sep 7: Japanese rescue workers with bulldozers and sniffer dogs scrabbled through the mud Friday to find survivors from a landslide that buried houses after a powerful quake, as the death toll rose to 18.

Around 22 people are still unaccounted for in the small northern countryside town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed with the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape.

"We've heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we've been working around the clock but it's been difficult to rescue them," a Self-Defense Forces serviceman in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK.

"We will take measures to find them quickly." An elderly woman in Atsuma told NHK: "My relative is still buried under the mud and has not been found yet, so I couldn't sleep at all last night. There were also several aftershocks so it was a restless night."

Around 1.6 million households in the sparsely populated northern island of Hokkaido were still without power after the quake damaged a thermal plant supplying electricity to the region.

Industry minister Hiroshige Seko said that number should be reduced to 550,000 households on Friday.

"It will take about a week" before the largest thermal power plant recovers, "so during that period, we are sending power-generating vehicles to hospitals," Seko told reporters.

He urged citizens to conserve energy by having fewer lights on in shops and restaurants and "for example family members staying together in one room".

Some 22,000 rescue workers including troops called up from the Self-Defense Forces handed out emergency water supplies and long lines formed at petrol stations and supermarkets, as people stocked up fearing further quakes.

"Please give your sympathy to people who spent a dark night in fear, and do everything you can to restore electricity as soon as possible," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet meeting to discuss the quake.

The earthquake, which scored the maximum on a Japanese scale measuring the power of a quake's shaking, also collapsed a handful of houses and walls in the main city of Sapporo.

However, considering the strength of the quake, the death toll was relatively light, with the majority of victims coming from the landslide in Atsuma.

Transport services were gradually coming back on line with bullet trains resuming operations late Friday morning and the main airport in Sapporo operating a partial service after cancelling all flights the day before.

But a football friendly between Japan and Chile in Sapporo planned on Friday was scrapped due to the transport and power chaos in Hokkaido.

The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country.

Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport.

And officials warned of the danger of fresh quakes.

"Large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days (of a big one)," said Toshiyuki Matsumori, in charge of monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis at the meteorological agency.

The risk of housing collapses and landslides had increased, he said, urging residents "to pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas".

Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

In June, a deadly tremor rocked the Osaka region, killing five people and injuring over 350.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0-magnitude quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives.
 (AFP)

Kupang, Aug 28: A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia today, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning or immediate reports of damage.

The offshore tremor struck at a shallow depth of eight kilometres (five miles), about 100 kilometres southeast of Kupang on the Indonesian portion of Timor island, the USGS said.

It was followed by a shallow 5.6 magnitude quake nearby.

Witnesses described a powerful jolt from the first tremor which lasted a few seconds.

"I was on the second floor of my office and suddenly everybody ran outside because of the earthquake," said an AFP reporter in Kupang.

"All the chairs were shaking... we were traumatised by all the earthquakes in Lombok." A string of deadly earthquakes that rocked Lombok island this summer killed some 555 people.

Indonesia's disaster agency said things had quickly returned to normal.

"Local disaster mitigation agency officials are still monitoring the impact of the earthquake," agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.

"There are no victims or damage."

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 Indonesians.
 (AFP)

Mataram(Indonesia), Aug 11: An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has killed 387 people, authorities said today, adding hundreds of thousands of displaced people were still short of clean water, food and medicine nearly a week on.

The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake Sunday levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok, just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

"It's predicted the death toll will continue to grow because there are still victims who are suspected of being buried by landslides and under rubble, and there are victims that have not been recorded and reported to posts," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The number forced from their homes in the disaster has soared to 387,000, Nugroho said, with around 13,000 injured.

The hardest hit region of Lombok has been in the north, where 334 people have died and nearly 200,000 have been forced from their homes, according to latest official tolls.

Two people were also killed by the quake on the neighbouring tourist island of Bali.

Nugroho said the emergency response period has been extended another 14 days, which would allow authorities to deal with the "many problems" that still existed in the field.

Most of the displaced are sleeping under tents or tarpaulins near their ruined homes or in evacuation shelters, while makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.

Six days after the quake hit some evacuees have still not received assistance, particularly in the mountainous north of the island.

"The main problem is the distribution of supplies to thousands of refugee points," Nugroho said.

"Most of the roads in North Lombok were damaged by the earthquake." Survivors of the quake have been shaken by hundreds of aftershocks, including a shallow 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday which caused people to flee evacuation shelters crying and screaming.
 (AFP)

Mataram, Aug 9: A strong aftershock struck Indonesia's Lombok today, the US Geological Survey reported, just four days after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck at a shallow depth today, with its epicentre in the northwest of the island, the USGS said.
 (AFP)

Shimla, July 31: An earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter Scale shook Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district today, the Meteorological Department said.

The tremors were felt in and around Kangra district at 1.18 am.

However, there are no immediate reports of any damage to property.

The epicentre was at a depth of 10 km in Kangra district, the department said.

This is third quake within a week in Kangra.

Earlier a low-intensity quake measuring 2.9 and a moderate quake measuring 3.8 on the Richter Scale hit Kangra on July 25 and July 27 respectively.
 (PTI)


Mataram, Jul 31: More than 500 hikers and their guides have been successfully evacuated from an Indonesian volcano after a deadly earthquake triggered landslides that trapped them on the mountain, officials said today.

Tonnes of rock and mud were dislodged on Mount Rinjani in the 6.4-magnitude quake, which struck early Sunday and was followed by scores of aftershocks, blocking the hiking routes that crisscross the mountain.

An estimated 560 stranded trekkers were thought to have included citizens from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Thailand and Germany, as well as many other countries, according to search and rescue officials.

"543 hikers have been evacuated -- they arrived last night," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP.

"There are now six people left... They are all healthy and safe." Hikers were able to start descending the mountain Monday after guides discovered an alternate route that was unaffected by the landslides.

Most of the trekkers reached the base of the mountain by late Monday evening, according to I Gusti Lanang Wiswananda, a spokesman for Mataram search and rescue agency.

"They were all tired, but in good condition and were checked by our medical teams on the ground upon arrival," he told AFP.

Hundreds of other hikers managed to get off the mountain on Sunday, according to officials.

At least 16 people were killed in the earthquake across affected areas of Lombok, while hundreds of buildings were destroyed including a health clinic.

The quake created panic on the holiday island and sent locals and tourists running outside their homes and hotels.

Helicopters and search teams were deployed to scour the volcano's slopes and drop food supplies for those stranded on the mountain.
 (AFP)

Ahmedabad, Jul 30: A light intensity earthquake measuring three on the Richter scale today hit parts of Rajkot district in Gujarat, an official said.

No casualty or damage to property was reported, he said.

The earthquake was experienced by residents of Gondal town of the district, around 255 kms from Ahmedabad, and nearby regions after 12 noon, he said.

"An earthquake measuring 3 on Richter Scale was felt at 12:37 pm today. Its epicentre was located 9 kms west-north-west of Gondal," said the official of the Gandhinagar-based Institute of Seismological Research.

Rajkot district Collector Rahul Gupta said no report of damage to property or life was received.
 (PTI)


Port Moresby, Apr 20: More than fifty days after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea (PNG), limited delivery of essential health services has resumed in earthquake-affected provinces.
However, thousands remain vulnerable to health threats as they continue to live in crowded temporary settlements with inadequate access to clean water and medical services.
More than 5,00,000 were affected by the earthquake that struck on February 26. At least 25,000 people have been displaced, while many communities continue to face compromised water and food supplies, significantly increasing threats of disease outbreaks, a WHO Western Pacific Region report on Friday said.
Of the 77 health facilities that were damaged by the earthquake, only ten remain closed. However, services remain limited at most of the re-opened health facilities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was on the ground in the affected provinces within 24 hours of the earthquake. WHO immediately activated the Incident Management System to coordinate the Organization’s response.
“WHO responded right away, deploying medicines and supplies to the earthquake-affected areas to treat those who were affected”, said Dr Zhang Zaixing, Incident Manager from WHO. “Our people were out there in the field, alongside the National Department of Health and partners, assessing the damage to health facilities and working to re-establish life-saving health services.”
WHO has designated the earthquake a Grade 1 Emergency and has deployed additional staff and supplies to the Country Office in PNG.
To date, WHO has repurposed and mobilized 19 national and international staff for the earthquake response, covering areas such as partner coordination, epidemiology, surveillance, information management, health operations, mental health, risk communication, administration and logistics.
WHO also delivered an Inter-Agency Emergency Health Kit containing essential medicines, supplies and equipment for 10 000 people for approximately 3 months. Diarrhoeal disease kits were pre-positioned in the country to help prepare for a potential outbreak and surgical supplies were sent to Tari and Mendi Hospitals.
Within 48 hours of the earthquake, the Health Cluster was activated at the national level in Port Moresby. Twenty five partner agencies are now working together to address the immediate medical needs of the affected populations. UNI 



Jammu, Apr 9: A low intensity earthquake of 4 point 0 magnitude on Monday jolted the parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
'An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale occurred at 0606 hours, an official here said adding, "there were no reports of casualties or any damage'.
"The epicentre of the quake was in Punjab," they added.
Mild tremors were felt and people came out of their houses. UNI



New Delhi/Imphal. Mar 3: A slight intensity quake, measuring 3.7 on the Richter Scale, hit Manipur's Churachandpur district on Saturday.
The quake, which hit the region at 0701 hrs, was epicentred at 24.0 degrees North latitude and 93.5 degrees East longitude, a release from India Meteorological Department said.
Its focal depth was 50 km. UNI