Earthquakes in Chandigarh, Delhi & Haryana, India

State - Haryana, India
Capital - Chandigarh (U.T.)
Population - 21,082,989(2001)

State - Delhi, India
Capital - New Delhi
Population - 13,782,976 (2001)

Million+ Cities in region
Delhi Municipal Corp. - pop. 9,817,439
Faridabad - pop. 1,054,981

Population per district (Top 5, Top 2 in Delhi)
Faridabad - pop. 2,194,586
Gurgaon - pop. 1,660,289
Hisar - pop. 1,537,117
Bhiwani - pop. 1,425,022
Sonipat - pop. 1,279,175
North-West Delhi - pop. 2,860,869
South Delhi - pop. 2,267,023

Earthquake History
Eastern parts of Haryana along with Delhi lie in the Gangetic Plain. This is a fore-deep, a downwarp of the Himalayan foreland, of variable depth, converted into flat plains by long-vigorous sedimentation. This is known as a geosyncline and the Gangetic Plain is the Indo-Gangetic Geosyncline. This has shown considerable amounts of flexure and dislocation at the northern end and is bounded on the north by the Himalayan Frontal Thrust. The floor of the Gangetic trough (if see without all the sediments) is not an even plain, but shows corrugated inequalities and buried ridges (shelf faults). The region sits atop the Delhi-Haridwar ridge which is a sub-surface ridge, trending NE-SW. There are numerous faults in this region, like the Moradabad, Panipat and Sohna faults. Delhi, Chandigarh and many parts of Haryana lie in Zone IV and thus they are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. Most earthquakes in this region are shallow though a few earthquake of intermediate depth have been recorded in Haryana. The alluvial cover of the Indo-Gangetic plain makes even distant earthquake felt here quite strongly. This region often feels deep-seated earthquakes that are centred on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border and in the Hindukush mountains in Afghanistan. However, it must be stated that proximity to faults does not necessarily translate into a higher hazard as compared to areas located further away, as damage from earthquakes depends on numerous factors such as subsurface geology as well as adherence to the building codes.

Seismic Hazard

Ambala, Sonepat, Rohtak, Karnal, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panipat, Rewari and Yamunanagar districts lie in Zone IV. The districts of Kurukshetra, Jind, Hissar, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh and Kaithal lie in Zone III while only Sirsa district lies in Zone II. The entire state of Delhi lies in Zone IV and so does the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Since the earthquake database in India is still incomplete, especially with regards to earthquakes prior to the historical period (before 1800 A.D.), these zones offer a rough guide of the earthquake hazard in any particular region and need to be regularly updated (See also: GSHAP Hazard Map for Chandigarh, Delhi & Haryana).
 

Largest Instrumented Earthquake in Chandigarh, Delhi & Haryana
27 August 1960 - Gurgaon-Faridabad (Haryana), 6.0 (TS)
15:58:59.20UTC, 28.20N, 77.40E
Damage from this earthquake extended into New Delhi where at least 50 people were injured. Structural damage was reported in Karol Bagh and cracks in houses in RK Puram.

Significant Earthquakes  in Chandigarh, Delhi & Haryana
The following list briefly outlines known earthquakes. General locations are provided for historical events for which "generalized" epicentral co-ordinates are available. Some events which were significant for other reasons are also included. This list will be updated whenever newer information is available. Please note that Magnitude and Intensity are NOT THE SAME. All events are within the state or union territory covered on this page unless stated otherwise.

Acronyms Used:
D=Depth, OT=Origin Time, Mw=Moment Magnitude, Ms=Surface Wave magnitude, Mb=Body Wave Magnitude, ML=Local Magnitude, M?=Magnitude Type unknown

27 August 1960 - Gurgaon-Faridabad (Haryana), 6.0 (TS)
28.20 N, 77.40 E, OT=15:58:59.20 UTC
Damage from this earthquake extended into New Delhi where at least 50 people were injured. Structural damage was reported in Karol Bagh and cracks in houses in RK Puram.

20 June 1966 - Delhi-Gurgaon Border (Delhi-Haryana Border region), Mb 4.7 (ISC)
28.50 N, 76.98 E, D=053.0 kms, OT=13:42:57 UTC

29 July 1980 - Western Nepal, Mw 6.8 (HRV)
29.60 N, 81.09 E, OT=14:58:40 UTC
Between 150 - 200 persons were killed and hundreds injured. Extensive damage in several towns in western Nepal. The quake also caused damage in Pithoragarh area, nearly 50 kilometres away from the epicentre. 13 persons were killed here and 40 were injured. The quake was felt as far away as Kathmandu and New Delhi.

21 October 1991 - Near Pilang (Uttarkashi), Uttaranchal, Mw 6.8
30.78 N, 78.77 E, OT=21:23:14 UTC
Between 750 to 2000 people killed in the Gharwal region. It was also felt very strongly in Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Some minor damage was reported in Chandigarh and New Delhi.

12 November 1996 - Near Kurukshetra (Haryana-U.P. bdr. region), Mb 4.5 (NEIC)
29.928 N, 77.207 E, D=055.0 kms, OT=04:20:58 UTC

4 May 1997 - Rothak-Sonepat Districts (Haryana), ML 4.1 (EIDC)
28.984 N, 76.588 E, D=28.8 kms, OT=07:19:22 UTC

30 March 1998 - Mahendragarh-Bhiwani Districts (Haryana-Rajasthan Bdr.), Mb 5.0 (NEIC)
28.211 N, 76.240 E, D=010.0 kms, OT=23:55:45 UTC

22 March 1999 - North of New Delhi, (Haryana-Uttar Pradesh Border region), Mb 4.1 (NEIC)
29.257 N, 76.940 E, D=207.6 kms, OT=09:56:16 UTC

29 March 1999 - Near Gopeshwar (Chamoli), Uttaranchal Mw 6.5 (HRV)
30.492 N, 79.288 E, OT=19:05:11 UTC
115 people killed in the Gharwal region. The quake was felt very strongly in Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi and Haryana. In Haryana, one person was killed in the city of Ambala and 2 at Nakodar in the neighbouring state of Punjab. Minor damage to buildings in New Delhi, most significantly in Patparganj. Minor damage also reported from Chandigarh.

28 April 2001 - Sonepat-Delhi region, Mb 4.3 (ISC)
28.591 N, 77.044 E, D=15.4 kms, OT=03:06:27 UTC
Felt widely in the New Delhi area and resulted in widespread panic in the city.

22 December 2003 - Jind region, Haryana ML 3.5
29.235 N, 76.401 E, D=15.4 kms, OT=20:19:08 UTC
A series of minor tremors were felt in central Haryana, in the town of Jind and the surrounding villages from early November 2003 into early 2004. This sequence was punctuated by a ML=3.5 event on 23 December 2003, which has been the largest recorded event since the onset of the swarm.

27 November 2004 - Chandigarh-north Haryana region, ML 3.9
30.352 N, 77.129 E, D=19 kms, OT=23:53:54 UTC
A mild earthquake struck the union territory of Chandigarh and the adjoining parts of Haryana & Punjab on 27 November 2004 at 05:23 AM local time. It was felt by many in the region and had a magnitude of ML=3.9.

8 October 2005 - Kashmir-Kohistan, Pakistan-India border, Mw 7.6
34.432 N, 73.537 E, D=020.0 kms, OT=03:50:40 UTC
A major earthquake struck the India-Pakistan border on the morning of 8 October 2005. It had a magnitude of Mw=7.6 and was felt strongly in much of Pakistan, northern India and eastern Afghanistan. The earthquake resulted in more than 80,000 deaths in northern Pakistan and adjoining parts of Jammu & Kashmir, India and is by far one of the deadliest in the sub-continent. At least 10 people also died in other parts of north India (including 2 in Delhi) and 4 in Afghanistan due to this earthquake. Tremors from the earthquake were felt more than a thousand kilometres away in the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

25 November 2007 - Delhi metropolitan area, Mb 4.6
28.677 N, 77.204 E, D=10 kms, OT=23:12:17 UTC
A light earthquake was felt in the Delhi Metropolitan area on the morning of 26 November 2007 at 04:42 AM IST. It had a magnitude of Mb=4.6 and was felt for close to 10-seconds in Delhi causing widespread panic. This is the strongest local earthquakes in the Delhi metropolitan area since 2001 and the highest in magnitude since the M6.0 Gurgaon earthquake in August 1960.