A mild tremor felt in Dibba on Friday was nothing but a minor movement in the Dibba Fault, which is an active one, an expert said.
"None of the four earthquake monitoring stations installed in the northern emirates have detected anything like an earthquake," said Dr Azm Al Homoud, professor of civil engineering at the American University of Sharjah (AUS).
"It was some kind of local tectonic movement involving the Dibba Fault, which is connected to the Zagros fault a major fault that lies on the opposite side of the Arabian Gulf in Iran," he said.
Dr Homoud has researched earthquakes throughout the region extensively.
He said a team of analysts from the AUS is studying the situation to learn what caused the tremor.
He said the quake monitoring stations in Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Masafi and at the AUS failed to detect any seismic activity.
"We did receive some reports from people who felt minor tremors, but there was no damage to any property or life," he said.
"No one from Fujairah city, Ras Al Khaimah and even Masafi has said they noticed even a minor quake." They have also contacted monitoring stations in neighbouring countries, including Iran, but no earthquake was recorded in the 24 hours preceding the incident in Dibba.
Since March 2002, when an earthquake with a magnitude of five on the Richter scale struck Mas-afi, the AUS Observatory Stations have recorded at least 70 earthquakes measuring more than four along the Zagros fault.
There is an immediate need to conduct scientific research to analyse the situation, he said.
"We should develop an earthquake code, launch awareness programmes for people and set up more quake monitoring centres."
It is a national issue and should be dealt with at the national level, he said.
"A team of analysts from the American University of Sharjah is studying the situation to know what caused the tremor. The quake monitoring stations did not record anything."
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