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A moderate earthquake
occurred in the Chittagong Hill Tracts near the
Bangladesh-India border on 26
July 2003 at
05:18 AM local
time causing some damage to property
and 3 deaths. The earthquake had
a magnitude of Mw=5.7 and was felt at
many places in south-eastern Bangladesh.
The earthquake was
centred 5.7 kilometres SW of Daluchari (Chittagong), Bangladesh,
14.1 kilometres W of Demagiri (Mizoram), India,
31.7 kilometres ENE of Rangamati (Chittagong), Bangladesh,
75.6 kilometres NNW of Buntlang (Mizoram), India,
81.5 kilometres NE of Chittagong (Chittagong), Bangladesh,
99.6 kilometres SSW of Aizwal (Mizoram), India,
150 kilometres SE of Agartala (Tripura), India,
165 kilometres NNE of Cox's Bazaar (Chittagong), Bangladesh,
217 kilometres SE of Dhaka (Dhaka), Bangladesh.
3 people were
killed and 25 injured by this earthquake. Two women were killed
when a mud house collapsed in the town of Rangamati. Another
person died a few days later, from a heart attack he suffered
during the earthquake. Five of the injured came from Rangamati
district where the roof of the Aymyachhara Health Complex
collapsed in the town of Barkhol. The Union Parishad building
collapsed in Barkhol. Two people were also injured when two acres
of a paddy field subsided in Kolabunia. Several buildings
including a school were damaged in the town of Rangamati. Five
acres of land near the school reportedly "caved in". 18 buildings
were damaged in the Langadu area. The residential buildings of TNO
and Upazila Chairman, upazila Krishi office, Krishi Bank, Post
office, food godown, police station and a building of Rabeta Al
Islami, were among the structure that were damaged. Throughout the
region nearly 500 buildings were damaged.
The shock was also
strongly felt in the port city of Chittagong where most residents
were woken up and ran outdoors. Power supply to some parts of the
city was cut as a transformer exploded at Modunaghat Grid
Sub-station resulting in a small fire. Several buildings, including
the Divisional Public Library Building developed cracks. Two
6-storey buildings at Halishahar which were under construction and a
100-year old building in the Nandakanon area also developed cracks.
Buildings also developed cracks in the city of Cox's Bazaar further
to the south, as well on the offshore islands of Moheskhali,
Kutubdia and Sonadia. An unusual rise in the water level and
'turmoil' in the sea during the earthquake caused panic among the
people. Tremors from the earthquake were also felt in adjoining
parts of the Indian state of Tripura and were also strong enough to
wake up residents of Dhaka, near 200-kilometres away.
A mild aftershock of
magnitude 3.7 was experienced at 13:34 local time and was followed
later in the day by a moderate sized event of magnitude 5.3 at 18:10
local time which was felt in Chittagong. This is the strongest
earthquake in this region since 1997, when several people were
killed in the M6.1 Bandarban earthquake near Chittagong. Another
strong aftershock was experienced on 01 August 2003. |
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References
01)
International Seismological Centre (ISC),
Berkshire.
02)
National
Earthquake Information Centre (NEIC), Golden, USA.
03)
Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor Solution (HRV), Harvard, USA.
04)
Macroseismic information has been compiled by
the ASC from reports by local media and local NGO personnel.
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