Bhubaneswar: Two earthquakes having magnitude of 3.2 to 5.6 in the Ritcher scale have been recorded in the Indian region in the last 12 hours. While a magnitude of 5.6 has been recorded in the south Bay of Bengal having proximity to Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Wednesday at around 11:12:10 sec, a 3.2 magnitude earthquake was measured in the early hours (4:28am) of Wednesday in Myanmar.
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This show increased rate of seismicity in the Indian region. And the heightened seismicity in the region has been attributed to the collision between Indian plate and Eurasian plate. Moreover, at the meeting point of the plates, in the Indian region, there are multiple faults lines, so, movement along these fault lines led to quakes of varying magnitude in India.
View the map below to figure out where the most quakes take place in India.
EARTH QUAKE HEAT MAP
A glance at the seismic heat maps shows the following states have recorded frequent count of quakes during the period.
- Assam/Manipur/Meghalaya
- Laddakh/Jammu&Kashmir
- Andaman sea
- Uttarakhand
- Gujarat
- Himachal Pradesh
- Maharashtra
Other states that have recorded quakes occasionally are:
- Andhra Pradesh
- Chhattisgarh
- Delhi
BIG TREND
Meanwhile, the data with the Ministry of Earth Sciences while confirming of increased seismicity in the country, has revealed a BIG trend. Take the instance of teh following:
In January 2024, the number of quakes recorded in India and its neighbourhood stood at 129.
In January 2025, the same count has increased to 334.
Now read the trend revealed by MoES that shows earthquakes in India have nearly doubled during the last decade (2014-2024).
MAGNITUDE | 2010-2014 | 2015-2019 | 2020-2024 |
Less than 3 | 424 | 244 | 1344 |
3.0 – 3.9 | 1119 | 1224 | 3205 |
4.0 – 4.9 | 1663 | 2203 | 2408 |
5.0 – 5.9 | 471 | 354 | 263 |
More than or = to 6 | 26 | 24 | 19 |
A glance at the above data shows when earthquakes of the range of 5.0 – 5.9 and 6 and above have recorded a decline, quakes of mild to moderate have increased in the country during the last 15 year period.
While quakes of bigger magnitudes have a devastating impact on people, habitations, infrastructure and economy alike, milder or moderates have a very negligible impact on social and economic lives.
REASON BEHIND
According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences Report, the reason behind the rise in earthquakes of Magnitude 3.0 to 4.9 during 2020 to 2024 compared to 2015 to 2019 and 2010-2014 indicates big.
It says increase in smaller earthquakes shows stress release and not allowing an accumulation of strain energy along the fault line.
GOOD OMEN?
As per seismic experts, when a fault slips, it releases smaller amount of energy leading to smaller magnitude of earthquakes. However, when a larger area of fault ruptures or the moving of tectonic plates leading to build up of stress along the fault line, it will then result in earthquakes of higher magnitude.
Seismic experts are of the view that smaller earthquakes not only result due to slips in faults but also due to release of accumulated stress built up along the fault line.
In the above backdrop, the near doubling of smaller earthquakes in the country seems a good omen as the frequent quakes is releasing the stress energy and not allowing accumulation that would have resulted in strain, rupture and high energy release, leading to quakes of bigger magnitude recording mayhem across.
