Earthquake hits Assam, tremors felt in entire Northeast including Arunachal Pradesh

An earthquake with magnitude 5.5 on the Richter Scale has rattled the entire Northeast including Assam and Arunachal Pradesh on Friday.  Tremors were also felt in Assam's Guwahati, Dimapur in Nagaland and other northeastern states at about 2:53 pm this afternoon.

The epicentre of the quake was reportedly 64 kilometres northeast from Bombdila, the headquarters of West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh. However, there are no reports of casualties or damage to properties till the time. The authorities are still assessing the situation all over the northeast.

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In the last few weeks, there has been an increase in seismic activity with at least 7 quakes reported from different parts of the world. The quakes reported from California and Indonesia were magnitude 7.1 or higher. 

While a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Southern California near the Searles Valley in San Bernardino County in early July, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake was again reported from the western US state in the next few days.

People in Uttarkashi region of Uttarakhand also witnessed a low-intensity earthquake early this month.

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Same day, a strong magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off Indonesia, triggering a tsunami warning all over the country. The shallow quake struck at a depth of 24 kilometres and was centred in the Molucca Sea between north Sulawesi and north Maluku.

Meanwhile, Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones has recently warned that there is "about a one-in-20 chance that South California will be having an even bigger earthquake in near future.