HYDERABAD: Fear gripped the residents of various colonies and gated communities in the IT corridor areas of Gachibowli, Financial District and Gopanpally as many people heard rumblings and felt the ground shake several times since Wednesday evening, following the heavy rains in Hyderabad over the past two days.
Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) seismologists said on Thursday that there is no cause for worry and informed that three microearthquakes measuring less than 0.8 on Richter scale were recorded from the region.
On Wednesday evening, people from Gachibowli, Financial District and a few other adjacent localities started hearing the sounds and felt the earth shake. Some residents of the My Home Vihanga residential complex in Financial District took to Twitter asking for help from the GHMC, claiming to have experienced at least 30-40 episodes of their buildings shaking.
Residents of even the TNGOs colony near Gopanpally and the nearby Secretariat colony also said that they heard rumbling sounds and felt the earth shake.
Dr Srinagesh D, chief scientist at NGRI who is an expert in seismology and earthquake hazard, said, "The average annual rainfall of Hyderabad is around 80 cm. The city has already recorded 123 cm rainfall, 50 percent more than the normal rainfall for an entire year. The rumbling sounds and tremors felt by the residents are suspected to be a result of hydroseismicity, similar to the phenomenon in Borabanda. There is no cause for fear."
Borabanda in the city has also been experiencing a similar phenomenon since the start of this month. NGRI scientists established monitoring stations there, which have been recording a couple of microearthquakes daily. These monitoring stations recorded the microearthquakes that emerged from the surroundings of Gachibowli.
Many microearthquakes were experienced in Borabanda in 2016 and 2017 as well.