COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) confirmed a minor earth tremor, measuring 2.4 on the Richter scale, was experienced in Lunugamwhera in the South, at 10:38 a.m. on Tuesday (7). No injuries to persons or damage to property had been reported.
This is the second tremor to be experienced in the area in less than two weeks. On August 25, the GSMB confirmed a minor tremor, measuring 1.5 in the Richter scale, had been recorded in the southern zone of the Yala National Park at around 9:15 p.m. 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 August 25 tremor was recorded at all four seismic stations.
Sri Lanka has been experiencing a number of minor tremors in the past several weeks, with a magnitude 5.1 quake recorded in the Bay of Bengal some 600 kilometres away from the Jaffna Peninsula, also on August 25. 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