Residents of Kolkata, eastern India’s major metropolis, were jolted around lunch time after an earthquake along the nearby India-Bangladesh border caused tremors in and across the city and its adjoining areas.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded the coordinates of the quake at 22.51°N, 89.17 °E in Asaashuni near Satkhira in the country’s southwest Khulna division. The 5.4 magnitude quake took place at 13 hours 52 minutes 29 seconds (Bangladesh Standard Time) on February 27, 2026. The epicentre is located at a distance of 188 kilometres from Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
The United States Geological Survey recorded the quake being 5.3 in magnitude and having occurred 26 kilometres southeast from the border town of Taki in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas.
The Bengal region, today divided between India’s West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh, is not immune to earthquakes, despite being mostly flat, riverine plains and the sedimentary delta of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system.
Indeed, most of eastern India, including Kolkata, is vulnerable to seismic events precisely because of the alluvial soil, which can amplify ground shaking, making even moderate earthquakes feel stronger.
“The alluvial soft soil helps seismic waves travel faster,” O P Mishra, Director of the National Center of Seismology, New Delhi, told Down To Earth.
To add to that Kolkata, though not located on a seismic fault, is not immune to seismic hazards. The metropolis is located on the boundary of Seismic Zones III and IV, which indicates a moderate to high risk of earthquake hazards.
Most importantly, the city is located near several highly seismic zones.
One is the Shillong Plateau, capable of producing massive earthquakes like the Great Assam Earthquake of June 12, 1897, in which over 1,500 people were killed. Tremors were felt across British India, from Burma to Peshawar. It also caused widespread damage in Kolkata.
The second zone is the Calcutta-Mymensingh Hinge Zone, located about 4.5 km beneath Kolkata and stretching up to Mymensingh in Bangladesh. This zone intersects with the Jamuna Fault, which triggered the devastating 1885 Mymensingh quake that caused severe destruction in the Mymensingh, Jamalpur, and Sherpur regions of British Bengal and also affected Kolkata.
The Arakan-Yoma Subduction Zone is a region where the Indian Plate subducts beneath the Burma Plate. Kolkata is located near this region.
Kolkata is located south of the Himalayas in Nepal and Sikkim, where the Indian Plate is subducting under the Eurasian Plate. This causes regular tremors in the city.