Muscat: A 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit last night at around 10pm doesn’t pose a tsunami threat, said Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority.
The earthquake that jolted the Owen Fracture Zone region, west of the Arabian Sea, happened at a depth of 28km. The Owen Fracture Zone (OFZ), is a transform fault line in the northwest Indian Ocean that separates the Arabian and African Plates from the Indian Plate.
Oman is a part of the Arabian plate, which comprises the continent of Arabia as well as oceanic areas consisting of parts of the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman.
Series of earthquakes
Along the north-eastern margin, the Arabian plate is in continental collision, which has given rise to the folded Zagros Mountains.
Last year a series of regular earthquakes were monitored and reported by Earthquake Monitoring Centre at Sultan Qaboos University (EMCSQ). In December last year an earthquake of 5.3 magnitude was reported 415 kilometres away from Salalah in Arabian Sea and prior to that in the same month another seismic activity was recorded 245 kilometres away from Khasab in Hormozgan in Southern Iran. A series of smaller earthquakes were recorded in Khasab and Bahla between August and November 2020.
However none of the quakes resulted in any human loss or structural damage.
