New Delhi: Eight earthquakes, including two major ones, struck the Andaman and Nicobar islands in a span of eight hours today, with each measuring around five or more on the Richter Scale, but there was no tsunami alert. Another earthquake not far from the archipelago hit North Sumatra island in Indonesia, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale at 3:04 PM and at a depth of 10 kms.
According to the Seismology Division of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the first earthquake occurred at 4:12 PM measuring 5.2, followed by another earthquake 11 minutes later measuring 5.
The third earthquake struck on 5:24 PM again measuring 5 after which at 6.54 PM, a quake measuring 5.2 hit the islands. At around 8:04 PM, another jolt of 5.2 was recorded followed by a mild tremor of 4.9 which hit the islands at 8:17 PM. About two hours later, an earthquake measuring 6 hit the islands at 10:17 PM while another one measuring 5.6 struck minutes later at 10:29 PM.
All earthquakes were recorded at a depth of 35-60 kms.
The area around the Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Indonesian archipelago is known to be a high seismic zone and often records tremors.
PTI