Hyderabad, October 28: The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) said 27 micro-earthquakes were recorded in Sachivalay Nagar of Vanasthalipuram during the past five days. They said the phenomenon will die down soon and assured it will not cause any serious damage to life or property in the locality.
The NGRI had set up two seismographs, one in a house near the Venkateshwara temple and the other at Saheb Nagar Government School, to record the ‘subterranean sounds’ experienced by the locals.
“From October 23 to October 27, 27 micro-earthquakes were recorded by the two seismographs, with the largest having a magnitude of 0.3 on the Richter scale. Analysis of the readings has shown these micro-earthquakes are of high frequency and of audible range, leading to sounds being heard,” Dr D Srinagesh, in-charge of the seismological observatory said. NGRI officials added the shocks had very low magnitude and only whose sound could be heard. Further, these small shocks were occurring within 300 m to 400 m in a localised area around Vanasthalipuram.
NGRI experts said these shocks are natural phenomena observed in the shield regions. “These are sometimes caused due to adjustment in the very shallow layers of the earth’s crust following heavy rains which create changes in pore pressure due to percolation of water. As these events occur in regions with an unusually strong gradient of rock properties, they prevent such sequences to spread to other areas, experts said.
–Agencies