The Nigerian Geological Survey Agency has allayed fears over earth tremors experienced in the Federal Capital Territory urging residents not to panic.
A statement by the NGSA Director-General, Professor Olusegun Ige, on Wednesday disclosed that the agency monitored the tremors and found them to be low and do not pose any threat to the environment.
It reported that approximately 48 separate earthquake events have been recorded, with both intensity and frequency increasing between Friday, September 13th to Monday, September 16th.
The statement read, “ The NGSA Monitoring Station at Katampe has been capturing several significant ground motions with high moment magnitudes in the past five days, beginning from September 13, 2024, till date.
The DG noted that preliminary analysis of the waveforms showed that the sources of the ground motions are less than 5 km away from the monitoring station
He added that the NGSA team also visited the affected areas for on-the-spot assessments of the events.
He said, “From the accounts of the residents of the affected areas, the observations by the NGSA team, and findings from earlier interpretations of the airborne geophysical data over the area and adjoining areas, the following conclusions were made that the tremors are a result of accumulated stress along the identified faults and released seismic energy, which may have travelled through associated fractures to areas where the tremors were felt around the FCT.
The intensities of the tremors are weak to light, ranging from III-IV on the Modified Mercalli Scale, and pose a very low-level threat.
“The residents of Mpape, Katampe, Maitama, and other areas where the tremors were felt are advised not to panic as the tremors can be generally described as low.”
He concluded, “The agency is keeping a close monitoring of the situation and will provide updates as may become necessary.
“The general public should also be aware that the NGSA Seismic Stations are being monitored in real-time to ensure prompt alert on any major event”
