Eight major earthquakes, which hit various countries in less than a fortnight, all measuring over 6 on the Richter scale, had no co-relation among them, say experts.
On April 6 and 7, two earthquakes measuring 6.6 and 6.7 hit Vanatu Islands in the Pacific ocean. On April 10, another quake measuring 6.8 hit Hindukush mountain range in Afghanistan, tremors of which were felt up to Delhi. Then on April 13, a 6.8 magnitude quake hit Indo-Myanmar border on the Myanmarese side, shaking Northeast India.
On April 14, an earthquake measuring 6.1 hit Kyusu in Japan, followed by another one measuring 7 on the Richter scale, the next day. On April 15, Vanatu was again hit by an earthquake measuring 6.5. Two days later, severe 7.4 magnitude tremor hit the Ecuador coast on April 17, killing hundreds.
"It appears that there is no connection among all the cases. The earthquakes that have taken place are all very far from each other and also on different plates," said C P Rajendran, scientist with Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru.
For instance, "Ecuador is on South American plate while the epicenters in Myanmar and Afghanistan where the earthquakes took place are on the edge of the Eurasian plate. Similarly, Japan and Vanatu are on Pacific plate. All these are on different plates."
An earthquake takes place when there is collision between the plates grind and scrape against each other.
Kusala Rajendran, Professor at the Centre for Earth Sciences (CEaS), Indian Institute of Science also said there was no co-relation among the earthquakes that have been taking place, but added that this requires an in-depth study to find out if there is any kind of link between the recent events.
"I cannot deny the fact there are pulses of seismic activity, but there is no binding relationship or an acceptable relationship. In the past, there have been studies that were done, but when it came to peer-reviewing, the logic could not hold," Kusala added.
"I would have said had there been similar earthquakes in the Andaman and Northeast adjoining fault because the fault lines are the same. However, in this case the fault lines are also different," she added.
Kusala, however, emphasised on a detailed study to understand the earthquake pattern.
Vineet Kumar Gahaluat, scientist with the National Centre of Seismology of the Ministry of Earth Science also sees no co-relation between the two.
"Studies have revealed that there is an earthquake cycle that takes place by looking at the data. But in this case, earthquakes have taken place at different places," Gahalaut said.
