Monsoon landslides, 6.8 quake leave Himalayan foothills of Sikkim devastated (rediff.com).
India's earthquake on Sept. 18, 2011 was likely the result of two seismic events striking at nearly the same time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The magnitude 6.9 quake killed at least 55 people in northeastern India, Nepal, and Tibet, reported the AP.
The quake rumbled the mountainous region of the Indian town of Mangan, in the northeast Indian province of Sikkim, and near the Nepalese border. The epicenter was 42 miles northwest of Gangtok, India. Tremors from India's big earthquake were felt as far away as Bangladesh and New Delhi.
The quake came at the end of the monsoon season, and rain-soaked hills spawned landslides that caused much of the devastation, according to the American Geophysical Union's Landslide Blog. Heavy rainfall and more aftershocks in the coming days could complicate recovery efforts.
A flurry of big earthquakes have hit in recent weeks around the seismically and volcanically active Pacific Ring of Fire, but they were not triggered by each other. The Sikkim earthquake, as it is called, was also unrelated to these other temblors, but was seismically complex in its own right. More
Quake toll rises to 80, over 3,000 rescued
NEW DELHI, India (PNS) - [UPDATE: Sept. 21, 2011] The toll in the Sunday’s earth quake rose to 80 on Tuesday even as defense and paramilitary forces rescued more than 3,000 people in the worst-hit areas of Sikkim and efforts were intensified to extricate those trapped under the debris of collapsed structure. As many as 50 persons have been reported killed in Sikkim alone and 30 others in the neighboring regions.
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