Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 25: The capital city came to a standstill Saturday when mild tremors hit it immediately after a 7.9 magnitude quake rocked Nepal and some parts of India, including Bihar.
The Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre here recorded tremors of 2.0 intensity at 11:43am, two minutes after the quake hit Nepal at 11:41am Saturday.
Many people rushed out of their homes and offices as they felt the mild tremors. “We clearly felt the tremor. We were terrified and came out into the open. This was a terrible experience,” said Luna Mahapatra, an official at the health directorate here.
However, civil aviation operations at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) remained unaffected.
Airport director Sharad Kumar said airport authorities had kept a hawk’s eye on the meteorological department’s reports on earthquake, but flight services were unaffected.
However, some people at the airport panicked when they felt the tremors. Many of them were seen rushing out of the airport’s domestic terminal T1.
“I was going to enter the departure lounge of T1 when I felt the tremors and immediately came out of the terminal building,” said Sanjiv Khanna, who was to take IndiGo’s flight to New Delhi.
This is the second consecutive year that the capital city experienced an earthquake. An earthquake of 6.0 magnitude hit the city May 21, 2014.
“The quake last year it was of high magnitude and we clearly felt the tremors. We thought that the situation will be grim this time too and ran out in fear of our offices in fear,” said assistant section officer Bibhuti Panda of the ETET department.
The capital falls in seismic Zone III, making it prone to earthquakes of a magnitude up to 6. “Earthquakes occur when the tectonic plates below the earth move. The Indian plate moves in the north-northwest direction, colliding with the giant Euroasian plates,” said Met director Sarat Sahu. “Whenever an earthquake of such high magnitude occurs, the plates get imbalanced. Till the plates balance themselves under the earth, minor earthquakes recur for weeks and sometimes even months,” said Sahu.
