A Richter Scale is a scale of numbers used to tell the power of earthquakes. The Richter Scale is named after Charles Richter who developed it in 1935. The scale starts from 0 and goes upto 8. It can go even higher in dangerous cases. The National Center for Seismology (NCS), the government's agency for monitoring seismic activity said that a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck near Gujarat's Rajkot at 8.13 PM Sunday (14th June). The epicentre was 118 km north-northwest of Rajkot. An aftershock of 3.1 magnitudes was felt six minutes later. It was a medium earthquake and did not cause much damage. 

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani held telephone conversations with the District Collectors of Kutch, Rajkot and Patan, regions where the quake was felt and from where tremors were reported. His office said officials had been told to report damages and activate disaster management cells if needed. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said,  "Entire Saurashtra and north Gujarat regions, including Ahmedabad, felt the impact of the quake. The aftershock was of lower intensity. There is no report of any major damage to life and property from any area after the quake," People come out of their houses in Ahmedabad when the tremors are felt. 

Less than 30 minutes after the Gujarat quake, a 2.9 magnitude tremor was recorded 90 km east of Katra in Jammu and Kashmir. Recently there have been many minor and medium quakes in northern India; In the last two months, 14 quakes have occurred in Delhi and nearby regions. The most recent was a low-intensity quake (2.1 magnitude) that struck near Gurgaon in Haryana on June 8, with tremors felt in Delhi as well. Similarly, yesterday there were many earthquakes across the world. In Bingol, Turkey, there was a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. 5.6 magnitude jolted Taiwan and a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of southwest Japan early Sunday but no tsunami was reported. 

Tags

• Gujarat
• Rajkot
• Earthquake

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