By Nneka Nwogwugwu
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Professor Abraham Adekunle Adepelumi of the department of Geology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife has explained the cause of the recent minor tremor in Osun State.
Recall that Prof Adepelumi released a statement over the weekend that states: “Earth Tremor of Low Magnitude occurred in South-western Nigeria around mid-day on 5th June, 2021.″
Explaining the cause of the tremor in another statement released on Sunday, the Don explained that “ A normal fault mechanism along the Ifewara -Zungeru Transcurrent Fault system due to Intraplate siesmicity was deduced. This suggests that this fault system is still active.
“The fault that caused the Earth tremor has a stress drop of 5.9 bar.”
Speaking further on the details of the tremor, he said, “An earth tremor of low magnitude occurred in Nigeria at 11: 11:25.6 am GMT on 5th June, 2021. The origin time is 11:11:08.2am GMT.
“The estimated epicentral distance (D) is placed between 108 and 113 km away from the measuring station at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
“The S wave particle motion generally trends N-S and NE-SW. This suggests that the wave is traveling perpendicular to the particle motion. Hence, the epicenter is somewhere along the NW-SE direction of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
“Using single station, the epicentre is roughly placed closed to Omu-Aran, Kwara State at latitude (Y) 8⁰06’18.0’N, and Longitude (X) 4⁰59’20.4’E.
“The estimate focal depth is 15.0km.The Moment magnitude (Mw) is 2.6 on the Richer scale.
“The local magnitude (Mi) is 2.4 on the Richet scale.”
NatureNews gathered that on 28th July, 1984 at about 12 hours 13 m UT an earthquake with an epicentral intensity of about VI occurred in the southwestern part of Nigeria, an area that has always been believed to be seismically inactive.
According to science direct, this event was recorded at the LAMTO seismic observatory in Ivory Coast and its epicentre was located at around Ijebu-Ode.
In Nigeria, the event was recorded only by a temporary monitoring station at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, a distance of about 640 km from the epicentre. Two subsequent tremors that were reported in Ijebu-Ode in early August, 1984 were not recorded at Ahmadu Bello University.
Also, in 2018, an earth tremor occurred at mpape in Abuja, which jolted residents in the nation’s capital.
A presidential committee was set up to assess the possibilities of more impactful occurrences in future.
Guardian Nigeria reports that a presidential panel’s report was released and its verdict is that Nigeria is prone to earth tremor.
The Chairman of the Panel and Director General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA) Professor Seidu Mohammed confirmed the development in Abuja while submitting his committee report to the Science and Technology Minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.
