The 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake caused max intensity shaking — impacted 300,000
On this day in weather history, an earthquake hit India.
On Sunday, October 20, 1991, a 6.8 Mw earthquake hit the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Though the shock was moderate in many areas, Ghansyali, Gangotri, and Tehri experienced "very strong" shaking and Bhatwari, Budhakedar, Krishanpur, Mahinanda, Maneri, and Uttarkashi experienced "severe" shaking.
In a post-event analysis, it was revealed that a 20 km square mile area experienced "violent" shaking, which is the maximum intensity.
Auli, Índia. Courtesy Amit Shaw/Wikipedia/CC0
The 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake impacted over 300,000 people in 1,294 villages. According to the United States' National Geophysical Data Center, 7,500 homes were damaged and an additional 7,500 were destroyed. But according to the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 42,400 houses were damaged.
The earthquake killed between 768-2,000 people and injured approximately 1,800.
India has been impacted by devastating earthquakes. In 2005, a quake hit Kashmir, India's northernmost geographical region. The earthquake was a 7.6 Mw magnitude event that killed between 86,000–87,351 people, injured between 69,000–75,266, and displaced 2.8 million.
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