SRINAGAR, July 19: A 5.6 magnitude medium-intensity quake with its epicentre along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was felt in the Kashmir Valley Thursday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property.
“A 5.6 magnitude tremor rocked the Kashmir Valley at 1.07 p.m. today (Thursday),” a met department official said.
The epicentre was located at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border at Latitude 36.1 degrees North and Longitude 73.1 degrees east, he said.
Many people in Srinagar and other towns of the Valley came out of their homes and offices when they felt the tremors.
There has been a heightened seismic activity in the past couple of weeks in north of Indian subcontinent in the Himalayan mountain stretch extending up to Pakistan and Afghanistan with recently an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude jolting the area. The quake,however, caused no damage to life and property.
On Oct 8, 2005 an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale had devastated many parts of Kashmir on both the sides of Line of Control killing over 75,000 people most of them in Pakistan administered Kashmir. Over 1400 people had lost their lives in Uri and other northern parts of Indian administered Kashmir.
Geologically, Kashmir valley is part of the bigger Himalayan zone which falls on the restive fault line of Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Most of the valley is vulnerable to earthquakes of very high intensity (seismic zone four and five) with the risk of extensive damage to life and property.
Last year, Roger Bilham- a professor of geological sciences in the University of Colorado- warned of a ‘possible earthquake of magnitude 9 in the valley’ triggering fears of a nightmare scenario among the locals.
