4.7 magnitude earthquake hits Gurugram, tremors felt in Delhi-NCR

• An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter Scale hit 60 kilometers southwest of Gurugram.
• Citizens reported feeling tremors across India's national capital region, including New Delhi.
• The National Center for Seismology recorded the earthquake hit at 7:00 pm on Friday, June 3.

Multiple people in Delhi reported feeling earthquake tremors in New Delhi and the National Capital Region. The National Center for Seismology recorded an earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter Scale approximately 60 kilometers southwest of Gurugram at around 7:00 pm on Friday, June 3.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the earthquake had a depth of 53 kilometers.

Since April, nearly 15 earthquakes have jolted India's capital. So far, all the recent quakes in the Delhi-NCR region have been low to medium in intensity. Rohtak, alone, has experienced eight quakes since then.


"The occurrence of 10, mostly micro-tremors is now becoming a cause of concern and some seismologists cautiously suspect these to be fore shocks of a bigger impending near-field earthquake! All of these tremors originate from very shallow depths of less than 10 km, suggesting that only the upper crust is in a state of tectonic flux," said Dr Prabhas Pande, a former Additional Director General of Geological Survey of India and an expert of seismology, told Outlook in June. However, this time around the earthquake was much deeper.

Kusala Rajendran who is a Professor at Centre for Earth Sciences in Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, on the other hand, believes there's nothing unusual about the uptake of seismic activity in New Delhi. "One can have many small tremors not leading to any major earthquake (e.g. Palghar, Khandwa) and one can have a large shock with no smaller precursors. This is a reflection of the structural and tectonic setting of the concerned region," she explained.

Seismic zones in India are divided into five zones based on the level of intensities sustained during past earthquakes, with Zone I being the least active and Zone V being the most active. According to this categorization, Delhi falls into the fourth zone.


The National Capital Region (NCR) is no stranger to earthquakes. Tremors from earthquakes occuring as far away as the northern Himalayas have made their way down to the plains. Experts believe this is because the hard basement rocks in the Delhi-Haridwar Ridge play a integral role in transmitting the energy of an earthquake through the region.

No loss of life or damage to property has been reported yet.