MUSCAT -- The Sultan Qaboos University Earthquake Monitoring Centre announced that a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Richter Scale has struck the Strait of Hormuz at 9:44 am local time at 56.02 degree longitude and 26 degree latitude and a depth of 6.4 kms. The tremor was felt in the northern Governorate of Musandam. Dr Issa al Husain, Director of the Earthquake Monitoring Centre at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), affirmed that all governorates of the Sultanate have not been affected by the earthquake except the residents in Musandam who felt a jolt. The earthquake affected only the places overlooking Qishm Island in Iran, Al Husain said noting that there is no further risk and viable monitoring systems are in place at the entire earthquake belt. The rate of seismic energy amounts to one degree annually and that has been constant so far.
Dr Ahmed Dhaif, researcher at the SQU the Earthquake Monitoring Centre said Qishm Island is a seismically active area and prone to earthquakes, it has seen a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in 2005 that claimed many lives. This island also experienced earthquakes as powerful as 6.1 degrees on Richter scale and yesterday's earthquake measure 5.6 degrees. The distance between the earthquake centre in Qishm Island and Musandam earthquake centre is 72 kilometres besides the earthquake hit at a depth of 6,4 metres which is why it had no effect on Musandam. Meanwhile, US seismologists said that a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook a southern Iranian city yesterday, with the tremor felt as far away as Dubai but no immediate reports of casualties. The quake struck at around 10 am (0430 GMT) and was centred 66 km south of Qeshm by the Strait of Hormuz, the US Geological Survey said. Iran's official Irna news agency put the quake's magnitude slightly higher at 5.2 and said there were no initial reports of casualties or damage.
The quake also shook the larger port city of Bandar Abbas and was felt across the Gulf, where residential and office towers shook for around 10 seconds but were not evacuated. Iran stands on several seismic fault lines. In April last year, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Iran and neighbouring Pakistan, killing 40 people. A massive quake in December 2003 struck the southern city of Bam, killing 26,000 people and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.
© Oman Daily Observer 2014
