Brief Darjeeling news update: Darjeeling and Sikkim along with the rest of North East India with some adjoining states experienced a 6.8 Richter Scale magnitude earthquake just about 2 hours ago. Sikkim being the epicenter of the earthquake (was 64-68 km away from Gangtok), Darjeeling hills experienced a strong shake. Till now we have news that 6 people have died in parts of Sikkim and in Nepal 9 casualties have been reported, but these are tentative news. North-Western parts of Sikkim seems to have involved in greater damage.
We were watching TV when everything started shaking, we all got out of our houses and assembled on open grounds far away from buildings or anything concrete. Luckily our area seems fine and we are safe. Thanks to the almighty. No electricity is available in Darjeeling, Gangtok and surrounding areas.
Plains of Siliguri (75 kms away from Darjeeling) seems to have experienced some damages with a few buildings collapsing, but no news of loss of life has been heard till this hour.
Luckily most of the Darjeeling Tea garden area seems to be fine as well, according to phone conversation with some of my tea garden manager friends. The majority of population of the Darjeeling Hills resides in the tea gardens and hope all of them are doing fine.
Hoping for good news from all around from all areas affected by the earthquake. Keeping our fingers crossed!
Update on Sikkim Earthquake, 19th September 2011:
Confirmed Reports on Sikkim Earthquake as of today: 19th September, 2011:
It has been confirmed by the media that 9 people have died in Sikkim alone. The district of Darjeeling: 2 in Siliguri, 1 in Kurseong and 1 in Kalimpong.
It has been reported that a gigantic rock under the Kanchendzonga (also known as Mt. Kanchenjunga) belt measuring about 20 km moved southward in the now reported 6.9 richter scale Sikkim-Darjeeling earthquake. According to Supriyo Mirta, a seismologist, said, “The movement of rock associated with the 6.9 event on the western side of Sikkim is likely to have caused a pileup of strain toward its east leading to the two subsequent events” – the first earthquake was followed by 2 smaller earthquakes of 4.8 and 4.6 magnitude. It is believed that the Himalayan zone marks the zone where India is slipping below Tibet at about 18 mm per year. This tectonic plate movement seems to build up the stress causing such earthquakes.
The 6.9 Sikkim Earthquake is believed to have released energy which is 22 times the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima or equivalent to 340000 tons of TNT. The earthquake’s exact epicenter is now revealed as “Mangan” in Sikkim which is about 66-68 km away from the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok. It has been reported locally that a volcano like eruption happened from the ground which sent some houses flying high above the ground.
Source: http://blog.thunderbolttea.com/tag/darjeeling-earthquake/
We were watching TV when everything started shaking, we all got out of our houses and assembled on open grounds far away from buildings or anything concrete. Luckily our area seems fine and we are safe. Thanks to the almighty. No electricity is available in Darjeeling, Gangtok and surrounding areas.
Plains of Siliguri (75 kms away from Darjeeling) seems to have experienced some damages with a few buildings collapsing, but no news of loss of life has been heard till this hour.
Luckily most of the Darjeeling Tea garden area seems to be fine as well, according to phone conversation with some of my tea garden manager friends. The majority of population of the Darjeeling Hills resides in the tea gardens and hope all of them are doing fine.
Hoping for good news from all around from all areas affected by the earthquake. Keeping our fingers crossed!
Update on Sikkim Earthquake, 19th September 2011:
Confirmed Reports on Sikkim Earthquake as of today: 19th September, 2011:
It has been confirmed by the media that 9 people have died in Sikkim alone. The district of Darjeeling: 2 in Siliguri, 1 in Kurseong and 1 in Kalimpong.
It has been reported that a gigantic rock under the Kanchendzonga (also known as Mt. Kanchenjunga) belt measuring about 20 km moved southward in the now reported 6.9 richter scale Sikkim-Darjeeling earthquake. According to Supriyo Mirta, a seismologist, said, “The movement of rock associated with the 6.9 event on the western side of Sikkim is likely to have caused a pileup of strain toward its east leading to the two subsequent events” – the first earthquake was followed by 2 smaller earthquakes of 4.8 and 4.6 magnitude. It is believed that the Himalayan zone marks the zone where India is slipping below Tibet at about 18 mm per year. This tectonic plate movement seems to build up the stress causing such earthquakes.
The 6.9 Sikkim Earthquake is believed to have released energy which is 22 times the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima or equivalent to 340000 tons of TNT. The earthquake’s exact epicenter is now revealed as “Mangan” in Sikkim which is about 66-68 km away from the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok. It has been reported locally that a volcano like eruption happened from the ground which sent some houses flying high above the ground.
Source: http://blog.thunderbolttea.com/tag/darjeeling-earthquake/