By Deldavdan Afowha
The federal government through the National Space Research Agency (NASRDA), one of its agency under the federal ministry of science technology,
has advised residents living around affected areas of the recent seismic activity otherwise referred to as earth tremor or earthquake not to panic.
The Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Prof. Seidu Mohammed urged those living in the affected areas to remain calm as investigations has shown that there is no need for relocation, adding that residents can go about their usual normal.
While jointly briefing the press on Tuesday on the outcome of the technical investigation of the tremor, a Director in its Geodesy Centre, in Toro, Bauchi State, Dr. Tahir Yakubu, called on the federal government to establish more seismic stations across the nation in line with global practice for effective monitoring and collation of relevant data of seismic activities.
Prof. Mohammed, said the preliminary investigations on the recent earth tremors experienced revealed the incident as minor and below 3.0 magnitudes.
According to him, investigations carried out by experts in the agency, the main earthquake which occurred on Friday 7th at 5:11:32 am with a moment magnitude of 2.6 and a local magnitude of 3.0. while the foreshocks and aftershocks were experienced on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as Friday and Saturday respectively.
The DG said the foreshock and aftershocks all had a magnitude of less than 3.0, explaining that the stress drop from the main earthquake was 2.1 bar, and the length of fault displacement was computed as 0.56kilometer, while the rupture or focal depth of the earthquake was estimated between 10kilometer and 15kilometer.
He pointed out that although it is difficult to predict earth tremors and earthquakes, however certain parameters can be put in place to monitor the activities of crustal movement within the fault lines of the country so as to understand the trend of such movements.
According to Mohammed experts and researchers from Kujama seismic station in Kaduna state which is closest to the scene of the incidence visited the area where the vibrations were felt and estimated the intensities of the earthquakes in Jahi and parts of Gwarinpa as II –III on the Modifies Marcelli Scale (MMS), and in Katampe area it was III while in Mpape it was estimated as III – IV with the strongest shakings observed around Ajegunle in Mpape.
The NASRDA team which comprised of experts from its Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics in Toro visited the site of the incidents on physical investigations so as to determine the vulnerability of structures in the affected areas in order to mitigate future disasters.
In his remarks, Dr Yakubu, of the Toro Centre said apart from the area being located along the epicentre, certain activities such as rock blasting and other earth moving activities along these fault lines can trigger movement in the earth that may lead to such incidents. Dr Yakubu also observed that rain water can become a lubricant that can make for easy crustal movement along these fault lines.
He therefore called for caution during such activities, saying, construction of infrastructure such as rail lines along these fault lines should be done with an understanding of the nature and peculiarity of the area.
According to him, further investigations will also be conducted to establish a link between the Kwoi incident in Kaduna which occurred in September 2016 and the recent occurrence in Abuja on to reveal and understand causal factors and deduce similarities between both occurrences.
Dr Yakubu explained that details of the various investigations by the Space Agency would be made available to relevant authorities for holistic and strategic planning in the wider area of Mpape and the Federal Capital Territory as a whole