May 21, 1997 Earthquake: Jabalpur, Southern, India

At least 38 people killed, more than 1,000 injured, thousands homeless and extensive damage in the Jabalpur area. Felt in much of Madhya Pradesh. Also felt at Allahabad, Delhi, Nagpur and in parts of western Orissa. (reference #1053)

A small to medium intensity earthquake rocked central India on May 22, 1997, killing about 56 people and injuring over 1000. The earthquake measuring 6.0 on Richter scale struck at 4:22 a.m. near Jabalpur, a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh about 640 km southeast of New Delhi. The city of Jabalpur is inhabited by nearly 1 million people. The quake's epicenter was in nearby Kosamghat village (25 km southeast of Jabalpur), where nearly 200 mud houses were flattened, leaving more than 1,000 residents homeless. The Narmada valley area in Jabalpur district was the worst affected. Adjacent districts like Manlia, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Chhindwara, Sagar, Satna, Durg, Ujjain, Bunde1khand, Rewa and Bhopal were also affected. Water and electric supply were disrupted and the rail network was also affected. According to the district administration the loss to property was estimated at Rs. 500 crores (US$ 143 million). Preliminary estimates state that 12,759 houses suffered heavy damage. Nearly 13,000 households lost their homes. The loss appeared to be greater in rural areas, where 107 villages were badly hit. (reference #1271)

The earthquake occurred on May 22, 1997 at 04:22 am (local time) centered about 8 km southeast of the city of Jabalpur (epicenter 23.18 N 80.02 E) in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. USGS estimates the depth of focus at a default 33 km. It caused significant damage to structures in the districts of Jabalpur, Mandla, Sivni and Chhindwada in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The maximum damage was in the districts of Jabalpur and Mandla. About 8546 houses collapsed and about 52,690 houses were badly damaged. In all, 887 villages (or equivalent) were affected. More than 90% of houses collapsed or were badly damaged in at least two of these villages with a population of about 500. During this earthquake, about 38 persons died and about 350 were injured. The maximum intensity of shaking experienced during the earthquake was VIII on the MSK scale at the villages of Kosamghat and Kudaria. However, the intensity of shaking showed significant variation from location to location. For example, some areas of Jabalpur town had intensities of VII while in other areas it was as low as V. (reference #1262)

On 22 May (21 May at 21:55:31 UTC) 1997, a moderate

size destructive earthquake of Mw 5.8, with a focal depth

of 35 km (constrained by two depth phases pPPnp and

sPPnp) occurred along the south Narmada fault near the

Jabalpur city of central India. This southerly-dipping

south Narmada fault had also experienced the 1927 Son

Valley earthquake of Mw 6.4 whose return period was estimated to be 35 + 5 years. Nevertheless, the mean interval between moderate earthquakes in the Narmada-Son lineament (NSL) is estimated to be 16 + 6 years. A study of depth phases (pPPnp and sPPnp) and the moment-tensor inversion of filtered (20-50 s) broadband data of IMD seismic stations for the Jabalpur main shock suggest a focal depth of 35 km and a thrust fault with a strike 61 deg, dip 64 deg and rake 74 deg. The ENE trending NSL, about 100 km wide, runs across peninsular India for a length of about 2000 km. (reference #1266)