Q.Why are there more earthquakes in the Himalayas and in the north-eastern region of India?

The Himalayas and the north-eastern region of India sit right at the boundary where the Indian plate is pushing into the Eurasian plate. This is a convergent plate boundary, and the collision is still actively ongoing — the Indian plate is moving northward and underthrusting the Eurasian plate.

Because the plates are constantly pressing against each other, enormous stress builds up in the rocks along the fault lines. When this stress exceeds the strength of the rocks, it is released suddenly in the form of earthquakes. The entire Himalayan arc and the north-east, being part of this active collision zone, experience frequent seismic activity.

Additionally, the north-eastern region lies in a complex tectonic zone where multiple plates interact, making it one of the most seismically active areas in the world. The continuous convergence means the region never reaches a stable state, so earthquakes keep recurring.

Think of the Earth’s surface not as one solid shell, but as a jigsaw of huge rocky plates that float on hot, slowly moving material beneath. These plates are never still. They drift, collide, slide past one another, and pull apart — and almost all the world’s earthquakes happen along the edges where they meet. India sits on the Indian plate, which for the last fifty million years or so has been pushing northward into the Eurasian plate. That collision built the Himalayas, and it is still going on today, at a rate of a few centimetres a year. The mountains are not a finished product; they are a work in progress, and the process is violent.

The Himalayas are the direct result of this ongoing crash. The Indian plate is being thrust under and against the Eurasian plate, and the rock along that boundary is squeezed, folded, and fractured. Because the plates refuse to stop moving, stress keeps building up in the crust. Rocks can bend only so far before they snap. When they snap, the stored energy is released as seismic waves — an earthquake. So the entire Himalayan arc, from Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, is a zone of intense, constant earthquake activity. The mountains themselves are young and still rising, which is another sign that the collision is far from over.

Now, why is the north-east of India especially prone? That region is not just near the Himalayan collision — it is caught in a geological squeeze. To its north lies the Himalayan front, but to its east the Indian plate is also pushing against the Burmese plate, and to the south it is colliding with the rest of the Indian subcontinent. So the north-east is a triple junction of sorts, where several plates meet and grind against each other. The crust there is being compressed from multiple directions, which makes it one of the most seismically active regions on the planet. The great Assam earthquake of 1950, one of the largest ever recorded, happened precisely because of this piled-up stress.

There is also a human dimension to why these quakes feel so frequent and so damaging. The Himalayas and the north-east are densely populated, with towns and villages built on steep slopes and in river valleys. The shaking itself may last only seconds, but the landslides, building collapses, and disrupted roads that follow can be catastrophic. So the region is not just geologically active — it is also vulnerable, which is why the earthquakes there are so often in the news.