CORRESPONDENTS
DHEKIAJULI/MANGALDAI/JAMUGURIHAT: A strong earthquake rocked Assam on Wednesday with its epicenter near Dhekiajuli. The peak of a small hillock at the picturesque Bhairabkunda on the triangular border of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan partially collapsed. The field at Nangli Sar on River Brahmaputra under Mangaldai Police Station bore deep and long cracks.
Altogether seven back-to-back earthquakes of 6.7 magnitude on the Richter scale jolted Dhekiajuli at 7:51 am on Wednesday. It caused large-scale damage to hundreds of buildings, both residential and market complexes in the Dhekiajuli area. Following this, tremors of magnitude 4.7, 4, and two 3.6 magnitudes at 8.03 am, 8.13 am, 8.25 am, 8.44 am and at 4.30 pm respectively were felt. The quake hit at a shallow depth of 10 km beneath the epicenter near Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur.
There were nine more aftershocks following the first major earthquake. The first tremor continued for more than 1 minute. Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake had been felt by everybody in the Dhekiajuli area of the epicenter. In those areas, dangerous ground shaking occurred with the potential to inflict moderate to heavy damage to the residential houses, market complexes and other infrastructure of Dhekiajuli area. Major ground shaking occurred in Tarajan, Narayanpur and Gadhajuli of Dhekiajuli.
In Dhekiajuli town, several shopping complexes were badly damaged due to the powerful earthquake. In some places due to the powerful earthquake the colour of well water turned white.
Senior citizens of Dhekiajuli said that they never seen such a tremor in their life. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday evening visited Dhekiajuli to take stock of the situation. He visited Sirajuli Model Hospital and Tarajan Bengali village and took stock of damages caused by the earthquake.
The 6.7-magnitude earthquake also caused minor damage in Darrang district. Several fields were seen with great cracks and inland water emerged in the fields.
Another mild tremor was felt in the Dhekiajuli area at 4:30 pm on Wednesday. Although reports of property damage are coming in from different parts of greater Dhekiajuli sub-divisional area, no loss of life or injury has been reported. Due to the earthquake, the boundary wall of the post office of Jamugurihat located at Borbhogiya collapsed but no one was injured.