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A
moderate earthquake struck the
Sikkim Himalayas on 14 February 2006 at
06:25 AM local time resulting in two deaths and minor damage to
property in the state of Sikkim, India. It had a magnitude of
Mw=5.3. This is the
strongest earthquake in this immediate region since a Mw=6.3
earthquake on 19 November 1980.
The earthquake was centred
2 kms ESE of Mana (Sikkim), India,
11.1
kilometres NNE of Sosing (Sikkim),
India,
25.8 kilometres WNW of Gangtok (Sikkim), India,
35.5 kilometres NNW of Kalimpong (West Bengal),
India,
38.6 kilometres NNE of Darjeeling (West Bengal), India,
67.5 kilometres NE of Ilam, Nepal,
72.8 kilometres N of Shiliguri (West Bengal), India,
130 kilometres W of Thimphu, Bhutan.
Two Indian Army soldiers were killed when the
vehicle they were travelling in was struck by a rock fall at
Sherathang near the border outpost at Nathu La in Sikkim. Two people
were injured in east Sikkim by this earthquake. A child received
minor scratches when a flower pot fell on him during the earthquake
at Ranipool while a man suffered minor head injuries after being hit
by a boulder along the Indira Bypass. In addition, 8 people were
discharged after being administered first aid at the Tashi Namgyal
Memorial Hospital in Gangtok. In Bangladesh, 11 people were injured
in quake-related stampedes at Gaibandha.
The earthquake was felt for close to 12-seconds
in Sikkim. Water supply and telecommunication networks were
temporarily disrupted. In the state capital Gangtok, loose items
were knocked off shelves while several public and private buildings, including
the Enchey Monastery, Janata Bhavan, Lal Bazaar, Police
Headquarters, Raj Bhavan, State Secretariat, State Bank of
India office at Zero point, the S.T.N.M. Hospital, suffered
various grades of damage. The shock was also strongly
felt at Chandmari, Deorali, Singtam and Tadong in the Gangtok area. Buildings were
also damaged at Deorali and some were later evacuated. Damage has also been
reported from Bardan and Rangpo in the East district, including in
Pakyong Sub division where four wooden houses collapsed at Laktuk
Chorten Pheri. In the North
district, old
buildings developed cracks at Magshilla and Phudong while in the South
district, one house was damaged at Sinchuthang Mamley. In the West
district, damage was reported from Nayabazaar, Pijuk Rabdenpac and
Yukfam areas and a building housing the Manipal University
developed cracks. Rock falls blocked some
roads in the state. Cracks appeared in the Assam-Lingzay road in
the East district and in several roads in Gangtok.
Minor cracks developed in some buildings in Shiliguri, West
Bengal.
Apart from Shiliguri, it was also strongly felt at Coochbehar,
Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kurseong, Malda and North Dinajpur in West
Bengal. Elsewhere in India, it was felt at Itanagar in Arunachal
Pradesh, at Guwahati in Assam, at
Bahadurganj, Forbesganj, Kishanganj, Pauvakhali, Purnea,
Thakurganj in Bihar and at Shillong in Meghalaya. Tremors were also experienced
at Dinajpur, Naokhali, Nilphamari, Pabna, Rajshahi, Rangpur,
Sylhet and Thakurgaon in Bangladesh, at Paro,
Phuntsholing and Thimphu in Bhutan and at Kathmandu in Nepal.
Seismic seiches were observed in ponds and other water bodies at
Dinajpur and Rangpur in Bangladesh. |
