Six earthquakes in 16 hours around Sylhet, two of them originating near Chhatak

Six earthquakes have struck Sylhet and surrounding areas within a span of 16 hours. The six tremors were recorded between Friday night (30 October) and Saturday afternoon (31 October). Because their magnitudes were comparatively low, many people did not feel them.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), a magnitude 2.9 earthquake struck at 2:19 pm on Saturday, 28 kilometres west of Chhatak in Sunamganj, Sylhet Division. Its origin was 15 kilometres below the surface.

Earlier the same day, at 6:30 am, another earthquake of magnitude 3.4 struck 28 kilometres west of Chhatak. That quake originated 25 kilometres below the surface. Two of the six earthquakes therefore originated in the Chhatak area itself.

At 10:16 am on Saturday, a magnitude 3.5 earthquake struck 74 kilometres east of Thoubal in India's Manipur. The same morning at 7:13 am, another magnitude 2.9 quake was recorded 13 kilometres north of Rangapara in India's Assam.

On Friday at 8:39 pm, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck 46 kilometres northwest of Rangapara in Assam. Six minutes later, at 8:45 pm, another magnitude 3.0 quake struck 45 kilometres west of Mawlaik in Myanmar's Sagaing Region.

In total, of the six earthquakes, two originated in the Chhatak area of Sylhet, two in India's Assam, one in Manipur and one in Myanmar, according to the EMSC data.

However, no information on the matter was available from the Sylhet office of the Meteorological Department.

Meanwhile, residents of Sylhet and various other parts of the country posted on social media that they had heard sounds from doors and windows and felt tremors. Whether each of those sounds and tremors was directly linked to a specific earthquake has not been confirmed.