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Seismic study confirms six tremors in Dibba Al Fujairah
SHARJAH - Three tremors on Thursday night and another three early yesterday morning,
- PUBLISHED: Sat 23 Oct 2004, 12:42 PM UPDATED: Thu 1 Aug 2024, 11:26 AM
Each measuring two on the Richter scale, have been recorded by the seismic monitoring equipment in Dibba Al Fujairah, according to Dr Azem S. Al Homoud, Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Earthquake Observatory at the American University of Sharjah (AUS).
Since last Friday (October 15), Dibba Al Fujairah has been experiencing small tremors daily. Dr Azem said the intensity and frequency of tremors is not decreasing, although they are so minor that apart from a little shaking, they have not resulted in any damage.
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“We had dispatched monitoring equipment to Dibba Municipality and we have been recording these activities. These are small earthquakes with intensity of three and less on the Mercalli scale, and two and less on the Richter scale. These are occurring on the Dibba faultline, the major active tectonic faultline that traverses the eastern UAE from North to South. The length of the fault is more than 100km and is capable of producing earthquakes of up to 6 to 6.5 on the Richter scale, based on similar such faults around the world,” Dr Azem said.
In March 2002, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale occurred near Masafi where the Dibba faultline passes. However, major destructive earthquakes are occurring in the southwest of Iran as a result of the collision between the Arabian Plate and the Eurasian plate at the Zagros faultline.
“The band of earthquake accumulation there is in the order of hundreds of kilometres, which includes the northern part of the UAE. We are therefore not far from epicentres of destructive earthquakes. The study on the scenarios of earthquake risk in the UAE that I conducted over the past five years, covers major UAE cities, Dibba included,” Dr Azem said.
An earthquake of 6 on the Richter scale would cause tens of thousands of casualties and destroy 90 per cent of the buildings in the town of Dibba, Dr Azem estimates, as well as result in massive economic losses.
