Dubai: The three tremors registered along the UAE’s east coast on Sunday night were of low intensity and authorities do not expect any further aftershocks, an expert at Dubai Municipality announced yesterday.
The epicentre of the first quake was in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Khor Fakkan, according to the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS). The origin of the tremors was tracked 33 km from Fujairah at a depth of 7 km.
“Dubai Shake Map showed low seismic intensity ranges from 3 to 4 on the Modified Mercalli Scale at the epicentre area where minor tremors happened at 8.13 pm, 9.07 pm, and 9.08 pm on Sunday,” said Mohammad Mashroom, director of the Survey Department at Dubai Municipality.
“Generally, the seismic activity of this area or all of the eastern side of UAE is weak and cannot cause any large effects other than light shaking without causing any damage. According to the available information, we do not expect any larger event than that of Sunday evening,” he added.
Eman Ahmad Al Khatibi, head of the geodesy and hydrographic section, Survey Department at Dubai Municipality, explained that the area where the tremors were reported in Masafi falls in a seismically active zone and was also the centre of several tremors in November 2002, March and September 2007 and February 2008.
“The area is located in rocky areas along with northern mountain chain of Oman, and the latest tremor comes as a by-product of some tectonic activities in the area,” she said.
The Dubai Seismic Network system deployed by Dubai Municipality since early 2012 has the capability to automatically locate any seismic event within a few seconds and send alerts, including mobile text messages and email, to decision makers to take the necessary action.
According to municipal officials, the technology Shake Map shows the seismic intensity and ground motion distribution close to the epicentre of the earthquake, which helps the disaster management department at Dubai Police or Civil Defence to update emergency plans accordingly.
