Dhaka [Bangladesh], September 21 : An earthquake of magnitude 4.0 struck Bangladesh on Sunday, a statement by the National Center for Seismology (NCS) said.
As per the NCS, the earthquake occurred at a shallow depth of 10km, making it susceptible to aftershocks.
In a post on X, it said, "EQ of M: 4.0, On: 21/09/2025 11:49:36 IST, Lat: 25.04 N, Long: 91.57 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Bangladesh."
https://x.com/NCS_Earthquake/status/1969650580319846500
Shallow earthquakes are generally more dangerous than deep earthquakes. This is because the seismic waves from shallow earthquakes have a shorter distance to travel to the surface, resulting in stronger ground shaking and potentially more damage to structures and greater casualties.
It is estimated that there is an earthquake every 30 seconds somewhere on our Earth. But the bulk of those are too weak to be identified. A magnitude of 4.0 earthquake is only equivalent to about 6 tons of TNT explosives, but because the Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, the amount of energy released increases exponentially: A magnitude 5.0 earthquake is about 200 tons of TNT, 7.0 is 199,000 tons, and 9.0 is 99,000,000 tons of TNT, The Daily Star reported.
About 99 million tons of TNT is enough to wipe out just about anything, and is the equivalent of about 25,000 nuclear bombs, according to USGS.
Bangladesh sits where the three tectonic plates - Indian-Eurasia-Burma - meet. Currently, the Indian plate is moving in the north-east at a speed of approximately 6cm per year and the Eurasian plate is moving north at a speed of 2cm per year above the Indian plate. There are five major fault zones in and around Bangladesh, namely Bogura fault zone, Tripura fault zone, Shilong Plateau, Dauki fault zone and Assam fault zone, The Daily Star reported.
Thus, Bangladesh is a location of 13 earthquake prone areas, and Chattogram, Chattogram Hill Tracts, and Jaintiapur of Sylhet remain in extreme risk zones. In 2022, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, with 30,093 residents per square kilometer was among cities with the highest population density in the world. And has been marked as one of the 20 cities most vulnerable to earthquakes in the world, as per The Daily Star.
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