A 3.6-magnitude earthquake was felt in several parts of the country, including Dhaka, at 4:15 pm on Thursday. The European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) confirmed the information. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The mild earthquake has sparked a wave of rumors and concerns on social media in the country, which experts say are unfounded. Just as the 2023 earthquake on the Turkey-Syria border was followed by false predictions of a major quake in India and Pakistan, this time too, the panic is being repeated.
Seismologists have long insisted that there is no scientific ability to predict the exact time or day of an earthquake. Professor Michael Bruno, an earthquake engineer at the University at Buffalo in the United States, said at the time, “There is no science yet to know the exact time of an earthquake.” Similarly, Professor Egil Hokson, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, also said that it is not yet possible to predict earthquakes by setting a time.