UAE plans earthquake monitoring centre

Abu Dhabi/Sharjah: The UAE plans to set up an earthquake monitoring centre as experts warned that repeated seismic activity near Qeshm island off Iran indicates the possibility of a bigger quake striking the region.

Residents of Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah spent an uneasy Saturday night following tremors after 10pm.

WAM reported that the Ministerial Service Council has approved the setting up of a meteorology and seismic monitoring centre during a meeting presided over by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs, in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

The new centre will be affiliated to the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and will be established in coordination with the concerned authorities.

A professor at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) said the epicentre of the earthquake, which struck on Saturday night at 10.18pm, was located in the Arabian Sea, 74 km south west of Qeshm and about 160km from Sharjah and Dubai.

Dr Jamal A. Abdullah, Associate Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the AUS and in charge of the university's Earthquake Observatory Centre, said the quake measured 4 on the Richter scale and it was 18 km below sea level.

"It was very close to the place where an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck on November 27, 2005. This is not a good sign. Repeated seismic activity in the same spot indicates a bigger earthquake in the waiting," he said.

But he said no one knows when it will happen.

"There is a probability that it may happen during the next 50 years," he said.