Earthquake of magnitude 4.2 hits Andaman Islands

An earthquake of 4.2 magnitude hit Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Wednesday night, said the National Center for Seismology.

The earthquake took place at 10.15pm, and the depth of the quake was 5 km, the seismology centre said.

There was no immediate report of any loss of life or damage to property, an official said.

The Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt extending up to the Andaman-Nicobar island region is known to be one of the seismically active belts in the world, and earthquakes frequently hit the archipelago.

Earlier in January, an earthquake of 4.4 magnitude on the richer scale jolted Andaman and Nicobar island.

On August 20, a series of tremors, measuring 4.9 and 4.8 magnitude on the Richter scale, struck Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla

On August 18, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, according to the regional earthquake monitoring service.

The earthquake struck at a depth of nearly 50 kilometres (30 miles) just after 7:00 am local time, some 90 kilometres east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the United States Geological Survey reported.

On August 16, an earthquake of a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan on Friday, according to the National Center for Seismology.

On August 13, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Hama in western Syria late, with residents across Syria, Jordan and Lebanon feeling the impact and tremors.

On August 9, an earthquake of magnitude 4.5 hit Sikkim. The epicentre of the earthquake was 2 km from Soreng town in West Sikkim.

Sikkim is located in the high-risk seismic zone IV of the Indian seismic zoning map. The state is spread out on the Himalayan mountain range with two main thrust faults, the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Main Central Thrust (MCT) crossing the state.

On September 18, 2011, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake had struck Sikkim, killing over 100 and causing significant damage.