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A major earthquake struck the
Nicobar Islands near Teressa Island, on
24 July 2005 at 21:12 PM local time. It
was felt in many parts of the Andaman & Nicobar Archipelago and in parts of
peninsula India. It had a magnitude of
Mw=7.3 and did not result in a tsunami in the Bay of Bengal.
The earthquake
was centred
115 kms SSW
of Kalara (Teressa Island), India,
130 kms W of West Bay (Katchal Island), India,
152 kms SW of Kakana (Car Nicobar Island), India,
180 kms NW of Heya (Pilo Milo Island), India,
221 kms NW of Campbell Bay (Great Nicobar Island), India,
442 kms SSW of Port Blair (South Andaman Island), India,
1425 kms E of Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
This earthquake is one of the strongest to occur in the
Andaman & Nicobar archipelago since 1900. Tremors from the
earthquake were felt throughout the archipelago and some buildings
sustained minor damage. There were no reports of casualties.
The earthquake was
strongest on Car Nicobar, Katchal and Nancowry Islands where it was
felt by everyone and people gathered outdoors in open areas awaiting
aftershocks. Tremors were also felt at Campbell Bay on Great Nicobar
Island and at Port Blair on South Andaman Island; at Rangat on
Middle Andaman Island. Residents of Indonesia's Aceh province were
woken up by the earthquake and many ran outdoors but no damage was
reported.
On mainland India, tremors were experienced at a few places in the
southern and eastern states. At Chennai, Tamil Nadu
where the shock was felt for as long as
5-minutes, many people ran outdoors in panic and gathered in
open spaces. In the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, the
tremors were felt at Machilipatnam, Srikakulam, Vishakhapatnam and
Vizianagaram causing panic. Felt Ramanniguda in Orissa and at Dum
Dum & Garia in Kolkata, West Bengal. Mild tremors were also felt by
a few persons in high-rise buildings in Bengalooru, Karnataka.
The earthquake was felt at Colombo, Matale and Kandy in Sri
Lanka, at Phuket in Thailand and as far as
Male in the Maldives.
A tsunami warning was issued by officials in Thailand but was
withdrawn a few
hours later. No warnings were issued by either India or Sri Lanka
due to the size of the earthquake.
Indian TV news stations reported a rise in
sea level at Port Blair
but these were not confirmed by government
officials. Given the location and
nature of faulting of this earthquake the chances of
a tsunami were low. |
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References
01)
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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