Manipur Earthquake Closes Government, Private Schools in January 2016

Summary: Northeast India's Jan. 4 Manipur earthquake prompts week-long government and private school closings in January 2016.

US Geological Survey's Shake Map for Manipur earthquake: Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Currently closed government and private schools at the earliest are reopening the week of Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, after seven-day closings subsequent to the Manipur earthquake in northeast India Jan. 4, 2016.

Strike damages, deaths, depths and distributions bring Manipur earthquake magnitudes up to 6.7 or to 6.8 and strike zone around Imphal, the northeastern state’s capital city. India Meteorological Department and United States Geological Survey (USGS) calculations cite a 57-kilometer (35.42-mile) subsurface depth and an epicenter 35 kilometers (21.75 miles) west-northwest of Imphal. They describe the event’s occurrence in the northeastern state at 4:35 a.m. local time Jan. 4, 2016, and at 23:05 Greenwich Mean Time Jan. 3, 2016.

Ninety-eight million Asians experienced the Manipur earthquake.

In-print, on-line and social media furnish reports of Manipur earthquake tremors being detected both eastward into Myanmar as far south as Yangon and westward into Bangladesh. They give for the Bangladesh capital city of Dhaka deaths of one from stroke and of two from heart attacks and injuries warranting hospitalizations for 100. They have reports of detections northwestward into Bhutan and into Nepal, respective sites of magnitude 7.8 and 7.3 earthquakes April 25, 2015, and May 12, 2015. The state-run Xinhua news agency indicated similar detections of “strong tremors” in Metok County; in Nyingchi, Qamdo, and Shannan prefectures; and in Tibet’s capital city at Lhasa.

Geology joined proximity to impact three bordering and 10 nearby northeast Indian states.

The Manipur earthquake tremors kept northeast Indians awake in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarth, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Gibji Nimasow, geographer at Rajiv Gandhi University, lists a topography Tibet-like in rockiness as accounting for the Manipur earthquake lasting “only a second” in Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh’s experience makes strong contrasts with falling household objects and widened wall cracks that residents witnessed in the other six northeast sister states to Manipur. Bob Swaggerty noted in reaction to 45-second-long, violent shakings of balconies in Dimapur, Nagaland: “My son said he doesn’t want to live in this house anymore.”

Imphal offers the worst scenario with seven dead and more than 100 injured.

Initial assessments prompt USGS-raised impact estimates from yellow alert’s maximum fatalities and losses at 99 and $100 million to orange’s 999 and $1 billion.

Ema Keithel (“Women’s Market”) qualifies as the Manipur earthquake icon since predominantly rubble remains from the sixteenth-century, world-famous bazaar for dried goods, handicrafts and handloomed products.

Priorities after the Manipur earthquake range from making neighborhoods, roads and schools safe to understanding the causes in one of the world’s most seismically prone areas. Harley Benz of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, states that the Manipur earthquake reflects a “strike-slip fault” between thrust-faults northward and southward.

Seismologists think that the Manipur earthquake of 2016 portends one far more devastating.

The January 2016 Manipur earthquake occurred about 29 kilometers west of the state's capital city, Imphal, at a depth of 55 kilometers: UMRO Delhi @ UMRO_Delhi, via Twitter Jan. 5, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

US Geological Survey's Shake Map for Manipur earthquake: Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10004b2n#impact_shakemap

The January 2016 Manipur earthquake occurred about 29 kilometers west of the state's capital city, Imphal, at a depth of 55 kilometers: UMRO Delhi @UMRO_Delhi, via Twitter Jan. 5, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/UMRO_Delhi/status/684452646237802496

For further information:

7News. 3 January 2016. "6.8-magnitude earthquake shakes India, Myanmar." Yahoo! News Canada.
Available @ https://ca.news.yahoo.com/6-8-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-234402809.html

AFP/Reuters. 4 January 2016. "Magnitude-6.8 earthquake hits near India-Myanmar-Bangladesh border." ABC News.
Available @ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-04/earthquake-hits-india-myanmar-border/7066128

All India / Press Trust of India. 5 January 2016. "Manipur Earthquake: Rescue, Relief Work In Full Swing." NDTV > All India.
Available @ http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/manipur-earthquake-rescue-relief-work-in-full-swing-1262358

All India / Reuters. 5 January 2016. "6.7 Magnitude Earthquake In Northeast Kills 11, Injures Nearly 200." NDTV > All India.
Available @ http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/earthquake-measuring-6-8-magnitude-strikes-india-us-geological-survey-1261850

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. 4 January 2016. "At least eight dead as north-east India hit by 6.7 magnitude earthquake." The Guardian > World.
Available @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/04/india-earthquake-north-east-manipur-state-tremor

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Available @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/23/113-dead-100-missing-in-myanmar-jade-mine-landslide

BBC News. 4 January 2016. "Earthquake hits India's Manipur state." BBC News > World > Asia > India.
Available @ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35219069

CNBC with Reuters. 4 January 2016. "Earthquake hits Imphal, India, near Myanmar border." CNBC.
Available @ http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/03/earthquake-hits-imphal-india-near-myanmar-border.html

EQForecaster. 3 January 2016. "M 6.8 Earthquake - Manipur, India Region - January 3, 2016." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKRFBT3ORNw

Ghosh, Sahana. 6 January 2016. "Arunachal escaped quake damage but northeast India yet to learn from disasters: Seismologist." Indiatimes > News > Politics and Nation.
Available @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/arunachal-escaped-quake-damage-but-northeast-india-yet-to-learn-from-disasters-seismologist/articleshow/50471108.cms

IndiaToday.in. 4 January 2016. "9 dead, 100 injured as 6.8 earthquake hits Northeast India." India Today > News > Earthquake Today.
Available @ http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/6-7-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-myanmar-india-border-region/1/561645.html

Johnson, Alex, and Tim Stelloh. 3 January 2016. "One Reported Dead in Earthquake Near India-Myanmar Border." NBC News > World.
Available @ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/6-8-magnitude-earthquake-recorded-near-india-myanmar-border-n489501

McLelland, Euan. 3 January 2016. "Earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hits border between India and Myanmar: Five dead and dozens injured after buildings collapse following tremor." Daily Mail > News. Updated 4 Jan. 2016.
Available @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3383293/Earthquake-measuring-6-7-Richter-scale-hits-border-India-Myanmar-One-dead-dozens-injured-buildings-collapse-following-tremor.html

Pappas, Stephanie. 4 January 2016. "Local Geology Makes Sunday's Earthquake in India Complex." Live Science > Planet Earth.
Available @ http://www.livescience.com/53253-imphal-india-earthquake-explained.html

Quantum•Chronograph™ @QCMatrix. 3 January 2016. "Q•C Forecast January 2016 '6-8-M-I-East-Border-Earthquake' Re-India/Myanmar rocked." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/QCMatrix/status/683799744183844864

The Sangai Express @TheSangaiExpress. 4 January 2016. "Pre-dawn earthquake kills seven, over 70 injured." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/TheSangaiExpres/status/684262540294123520

Toppo, Greg. 4 January 2016. "Major earthquake hits northeast India." USA Today > News.
Available @ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/03/india-earthquake-myanmar-border/78241542/

UMRO Delhi @UMRO_Delhi. 5 January 2016. "Manipur, NE Indian Earthquake 4 Jan. 2016! Some pictures!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/UMRO_Delhi/status/684452646237802496

Vervaeck, Armand. 6 January 2016. "Deadly earthquake near Imphal, Manipur, India -- 21 dead and 297 injured so far + massive damage." Earthquake-Report.
Available @ http://earthquake-report.com/2016/01/03/very-strong-earthquake-myanmar-india-border-region-on-january-3-2016/

Whitaker, Justin. 3 January 2016. "BREAKING: major earthquake hits India/Burma (Myanmar) region." Patheos > Buddhist Channel > American Buddhist Perspectives.
Available @ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2016/01/breaking-major-earthquake-hits-indiaburma-myanmar-region.html