Two back-to-back quakes jolt Chamba

Two back-to-back earthquakes within a span of just over an hour jolted Chamba district in the early hours of Wednesday, triggering panic among residents and once again drawing attention to the region’s vulnerability to seismic activity.

According to the National Centre of Seismology, the first quake, a mild tremor measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale, struck at 3.27 am. Its epicentre was located near Sanwal in Salooni subdivision of Chamba at a depth of 20 km. Barely an hour later, at 4.39 am, another and comparatively stronger quake of magnitude 4.0 was recorded. The second tremor was centred a little south of the earlier epicentre near Salooni but at a much shallower depth of just 5 km, making it more strongly felt on the surface.

Seismologists note that Chamba, along with almost the entire state of Himachal Pradesh, falls in seismic zone V, which is classified as a “high damage risk zone.” This makes the area particularly prone to frequent earthquakes of varying intensity.

Experts caution that while most tremors in the region are of mild to moderate magnitude, the zone’s seismic profile demands constant preparedness as stronger earthquakes cannot be ruled out.

The district has witnessed a series of tremors in recent weeks. On July 26, a moderate earthquake of magnitude 4.1 had struck with its epicentre in Churah subdivision, while earlier on July 11, another quake measuring 3.5 was recorded along the Chamba-Kangra border.

More recently, on August 18, Kangra district experienced a 3.9 magnitude quake, whose epicentre was near to Chamba border.