Earthquake Of Magnitude 3.3 Hits Kangpokpi, Manipur

Senapati: An earthquake of 3.3 magnitudes hit Kangpokpi area in Manipur at 12:35 PM today, according to the National Centre for Seismology.

As per the official Twitter handle of National Centre for Seismology, Earthquake of Magnitude:3.3, Occurred on 26-01-2021, 12:35:18 IST, Lat: 25.14 & Long: 93.87, Depth: 15 Km, Location: 36km N of Imphal, Manipur.

This comes nearly two weeks after a moderate-intensity earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale jolted Manipur on December 31.

Earlier on January 25, an earthquake of 3.5 magnitude hit Arunachal Pradesh in the wee hours of Monday in Arunachal Pradesh's capital city Itanagar.

The earthquake of 11 kilometres depth hit 61 kilometres northwest of Itanagar, National Centre for Seismology reported.

In a tweet it said: Earthquake of Magnitude:3.5, Occurred on 25-01-2021, 02:15:31 IST, Lat: 27.51 & Long: 93.21, Depth: 11 Km, Location: 61km NW of Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India for more information.

The North East has experienced 13 low to medium intensity earthquakes in the second half of 2020, leading to concern among people and experts in the seismically-active region.

The development has caused concern among people and experts over the question of whether earthquakes at frequent intervals hint about a bigger and strong earthquake in the near future. Experts and geologists are also divided in their opinions.

"Frequent earthquakes in the North East are a cause of concern since the entire region falls in the seismically-active Zone V. In case it is happening in a particular location frequently as pointed out in Assam, Manipur and Mizoram (in the last few months) we should monitor it properly. Our government agencies should find out if it was an indication of a bigger earthquake," an expert at Gauhati University said.

On other hand, Dr Santanu Sarma, Associate Professor at Department of Geology, Cotton University told The Sentinel that frequent occurrence of earthquakes is not always an indicator of the possible occurrence of a bigger earthquake in the near future.

"Occurrence of an earthquake is a mean of releasing stresses that are accumulated deep inside the earth because of the relative movement of the tectonic plates. Sometimes the frequent occurrence of small scale earthquake helps to release the accumulated stresses in phases that ultimately prevent the possible occurrence of an earthquake of a bigger scale," Dr Sarma said.

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