Nuke tests behind multiple quakes in Pak? NCS clarifies

A 4.6 magnitude earthquake shook parts of Pakistan on Monday with the epicentre located close to a prominent faultline in its Punjab province, the director of the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said.

IMAGE: People walk past the damaged administration block of the Government Health and Education complex, in Muridke. Photograph: Gibran Peshimam/Reuters

The earthquake occurred at 1:26 pm IST near Pir Jongal in Pakistan’s Punjab province, O P Mishra, Director of the NCS said.

Monday’s temblor was the third earthquake to hit Pakistan in a span of three days, prompting claims on social media of some ‘unusual activity’ in the neighbouring country that was engaged in an armed conflict with India.

Mishra said the epicentre of the earthquake was close to the Main Central Thrust, a geological faultline that is prone to seismic activity.

Pakistan experienced two back-to-back earthquakes on May 10 — one 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the morning followed by a 4.0 magnitude temblor later.

The series of earthquakes over the past three days sparked off chatter on social media ranging from India’s air strikes hitting crucial installations in Pakistan to Islamabad conducting nuclear tests.

‘This is not natural Earthquake but possibly Nuclear site event in #Pakistani Nuclear sites? #OperationSindoor,’ a social media user said on X.

The NCS chief dismissed the claims about possible nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan.

“Nuclear explosions have a distinct signature. A natural earthquake has two phases, while nuclear explosion has a distinct tertiary phase. This is due to reverberation of the surface following a nuclear explosion. Seismographs can detect this distinctly,” Mishra told PTI.

Veteran seismologist A K Shukla said that the nuclear explosions are recorded differently on seismographs.

“The previous earthquakes have been reported from different locations and it was not possible to have nuclear facilities spread across different regions,” Shukla said.

Pakistan lies along the active boundary between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and provinces such as Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Gilgit-Baltistan are prone to frequent earthquakes.