Earthquake of magnitude 3.8 hits Tibet, no casualties reported so far

An earthquake of magnitude 3.8 struck Tibet in the early hours of Friday, as reported by the National Centre for Seismology.

Sharing the details in a post on X, the NCS said, "EQ of M: 3.8, On: 05/09/2025 02:50:05 IST, Lat: 34.01 N, Long: 81.90 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Tibet."

The Tibetan Plateau is known for its seismic activity due to tectonic plate collisions.

Tibet and Nepal lie on a major geological fault line where the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence as a result of it. The region is seismically active due to tectonic uplifts that can grow strong enough to change the heights of the Himalayas' peaks.

The Tibetan plateau attains its high elevation due to crustal thickening caused by the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian plate, creating the Himalayas. Faulting within the plateau is associated with strike-slip and normal mechanisms. The plateau extends in an east-west direction evidenced by north-south striking grabens, strike-slip faulting and GPS data.

In the northern region, strike-slip faulting constitutes the dominant style of tectonics while in the south, the dominant tectonic domain is east-west extension on north-south trending normal faults.

Seven north-south trending rifts and normal faults were first discovered in southern Tibet during the late 1970s and early 1980s using satellite imagery. They began formation when extension occurred some 4 to 8 million years ago.

The largest earthquakes in Tibet, with magnitudes of 8.0 or similar, occur along strike-slip faults. Normal faulting earthquakes are smaller in magnitudes; in 2008, five normal faulting earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.9 to 7.1 occurred in various locations across the plateau.