Telangana’s Mulugu ‘moderate’ earthquake second biggest recorded in the region in last 55 years

Tremors of the earthquake in Medaram in Mulugu of Telangana, which occurred at about 7.27 a.m. (Indian Standard Time), were felt in some parts of the twin cities and nearby districts too more than 200 km away
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement

CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) scientists said that the ‘moderate’ earthquake of 5.0 magnitude on the Richter Scale occurred at Medaram in Mulugu district of Telangana – about 250 km from Hyderabad – on Monday (December 4, 2024) is the second biggest one recorded in the last 55 years in the region, but there is “nothing for the general public to be alarmed about”.

The biggest earthquake in the region

“An earthquake of 5.7 on Richter Scale was recorded in Bhadrachalam on July 5, 1969 which is the biggest so far in this region, and we have had two more earthquakes of magnitude 4.8 in Medchal in 1983 and 4.6 in Pulichintala in 2021,” explained NGRI Director Prakash Kumar on Wednesday.

Tremors of today’s earthquake which occurred at about 7.27 a.m. (Indian Standard Time) were felt in some parts of the twin cities and nearby districts too more than 200 km away and the Director attributed it to the density and the composition of the rock formations.

These are not “big earthquakes”

Mr. Kumar advised the general public not to be worried as these are not “big earthquakes” and such seismological events keep happening in the Godavari Rift Basin which is a fault zone. There are several fractures and faults along the Godavari and Krishna rivers and surroundings.

“The Godavari Rift Basin is a very important basin in the country. We are the nodal agency for keeping a tab on the seismological events and have been continuously monitoring the earth crust with an array of seismometers. Almost all our seismic stations, including the one located inside the institute premises, has recorded the earthquake today in real time,” added Mr. Kumar.

CSIR- NGRI was established in 1961 to carry out research in multidisciplinary areas of the highly complex structure and processes of the Earth system with focused research areas including earthquake hazards, geodynamics revolving around investigating and modelling fundamental aspects of the Earth systems and implementation of techniques to identify primary geo-resources like groundwater, hydrocarbons as well as alternate energy sources and minerals.