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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Expert Warns About Possibility Of Earthquake in Nigeria:

 Nigerian scientists that study earthquakes(seismologists0 have agreed that the country is no longer free from earthquake; 
in fact they have all agreed that the natural disaster  is imminent in Nigeria. This belief arises from the series of earth tremors that have been occurring in different parts of the country in recent times.
Experts are convinced that there is a real possibility of an earthquake occurring somewhere within our shores. The  recent trend of tremors in Nigeria is an indication that seismic activities within the country are increasing and urgent measures need to be adopted to avert devastating consequences of big earthquakes in the most populous black nation in the world.

The seismic events whose vibrations were felt heavily close to epicenters at the respective communities are now causing the entire country and indeed, the global seismological community which is becoming a great concern.
Records have shown that earth tremors (minor earthquakes) have occurred in Nigeria from 1933-2016.   An overview of these events would leave us with no other explanation than to believe that  Nigeria will join the unfortunate countries that have experienced earthquake. The country has  experienced tremor in 1933, 1939, 1964, 1984, 1985 (in Komba Yaya), 1987 (in Akko) near Gombe;  1990, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2009 and 2016. Most of these occurrences were not instrumentally recorded  because there were no functional seismological observatories in Nigeria  but those of 1984  at Ijebu-Ode, 1990 at Ibadan and 2000 at Jushi Kwari were recorded. The epicenters of most of these events were mainly located in South-West Nigeria.. Although the tremors were not recorded by the closest seismic station located in Ile-Ife, however, from the field observation and well-structured questionnaires data gathered by a team of experts from the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics under the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, the intensity of the tremors was established to range from three to four on the  Modified Mercalli, MM, Intensity Scale, and the magnitudes subsequently estimated from the Ritcher Intensity-Magnitude Scale table

Residents in the ancient community of Shaki in Oyo state tried to come to terms with the tremors some residents described as strange and mysterious, the border communities of Bayelsa and Rivers states were hit with yet another tremor on July 10, 2016, and structures were seriously damaged in this case, but no loss of lives. The tremors were widely felt within Bayelsa and Rivers states and this has changed the age-long belief that Nigeria is not active or free from earthquakes The earthquakes at Kwoi were recorded by the seismic station at Kujama, Kaduna State and also operated by the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, with magnitudes ranging from 2.6 to 3.0

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