COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB)on Wednesday (25) confirmed a minor earth tremor was recorded in the Hambantota area late Tuesday (24) evening but said there had been zero damage to property.
The Bureau said the tremor measuring 1.5 in the Richter scale was experienced around 9:15 p.m. in the southern zone of the Yala National Park on Tuesday and was felt in Lunugamwehera, Beralihela, Seenimulla, Lunugamwevera Reservoir and other small settlements
Chairman GSMB, Anura Walpola, was quoted in local media as saying the tremor was recorded at all four seismic stations.
Locals in the surrounding area have said they were shaken by the experience, with media reports quoting some of them as saying they had felt a movement similar to the earth cracking under them.
The tremor in Yala follows a magnitude 5.1 quake recorded in the Bay of Bengal some 600 kilometres away from the Jaffna Peninsula on Tuesday morning. The Met Department said it posed no threat to Sri Lanka.
Earlier, on August 16, a shallow magnitude 4.3 earthquake was reported near Colombo, at around 6.16 p.m. India’s National Centre for Seismology said the tremor had occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km, generally felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. Based on the preliminary seismic data, Volcano Discover, a site that monitors seismic movements across the world, said the quake would have been felt as a light shaking in Horana, Kalutara, Maharagama, Moratuwa, Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, Battaramulla South, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Pitakotte, Kotikawatta, and Colombo.
-ENCL