People in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon were seen rushing out of buildings and homes, however, no initial loss to any life or damage to property has been reported.
Strong tremors were felt across the Delhi-NCR region on Thursday morning after a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck near Jhajjar in Haryana at 9.04 am. People in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon were seen rushing out of buildings and homes, however, no initial loss to any life or damage to any property has been reported.
According to the National Center for Seismology (NCS), the earthquake had a depth of 10km and was recorded at 9:04am.
Apart from the national capital, the tremors were also felt in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad in the National Capital Region, apart from parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
People on social media said that the intensity of the tremors scared them, with even the cupboards being forced open due to the jolts.
“We felt the tremors…It was really scary, my vehicle shook. It was really strong,” an eyewitness told the news agency ANI.
Another eyewitness in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad said that he felt someone was shaking the whole shop he was sitting in.
“The tremors felt quite strong. I was at a shop when it hit, it felt as if someone was shaking the shop,” he said.
On February 17, similar tremors were felt in the region after a 4.0 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in south Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan was recorded.
Data from the NCS showed the region has recorded another 446 earthquakes between 1993 to 2025 within a 50 sq km radius of the Dhaula Kuan epicentre, ranging from a magnitude of 1.1 to 4.6, highlighting the high seismic activity of the region.
Why is Delhi so prone to earthquakes
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) classifies the entire country into four seismic groups – ranging from zone II (low intensity) to zone V (very severe).
Delhi and NCR falls into zone IV (severe) according to this categorization, making seismic activity a fairly common occurrence and Thursday’s earthquake no anomaly.
While Delhi has three active fault lines running through it — the Sohna, Mathura and Delhi-Moradabad fault lines, the neighbouring Haryana region has seven such lines running across it. Delhi’s proximity to the Himalayan region, which also is in a high seismic zone, further makes the capital prone to receiving aftershocks, experts said.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
