Himachal Pradesh: Earthquake of magnitude 3.4 hits Lahaul and Spiti

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An earthquake of magnitude 3.4 on the Richter scale jolted Lahaul And Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, National Center for Seismology informed, reported news agency ANI.

The tremors were felt at 23:20:41, Indian standard time (IST).

According to the NCS, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 5 kilometres, reported ANI.

"Earthquake of Magnitude:3.4, Occurred on 09-08-2023, 23:20:41 IST, Lat: 32.30 & Long: 78.47, Depth: 5 Km , Location: Lahaul And Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India," read a post on the official 'X' handle of NCS.

Further reports are awaited.

Another earthquake of magnitude 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted Indonesia on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

It took place around 142 km W of Tual in Indonesia at 07:30:29 (UTC+05:30).

According to the USGS, the depth of the earthquake was registered at 90.5 km and its epicentre was found to be at Latitude: 5.777°S and Longitude: 131.478°E respectively.

No reports of casualties or material damage are known yet.

Notably, Tual is a city in Indonesia's Maluku Province that is geographically situated within the Kei Islands.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis frequently strike Indonesia, a country of more than 270 million people because of its location on the "Ring of Fire."

The Ring of Fire, or the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.

It is a horseshoe-shaped belt about 40,000 km long and about 500 km wide that contains two-thirds of the world's total volcanoes and 90 per cent of Earth's earthquakes.

(With inputs from ANI)