By Dele Ogbodo
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology on Wednesday 18, September 2024, said the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) will soon implement measures to mitigate the seismic risks associated with the perceived earth tremor which took residents of Mpape, in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) unawares over the weekend.
Addressing stakeholders, scientists and the media on the panic triggered from multiple earth tremors as witnessed by residents in the area, the Minister in charge of the Ministry, Chief Uche Geoffrey Nnaji, said government will continue to monitor activities across the country with the intent to provide regular updates on mitigating the risks should it occur.
The Minister however, recalled that Mpape experienced a similar sequence of earth tremors from September 5 to 7, 2018, this he added drew significant local and international attention to Nigeria’s increasing seismic activity.
He acknowledged: “The recent tremors were accompanied by loud noises and ground shaking, causing widespread alarm among the residents of Mpape.”
However, he added that in response, government is currently processing and analyzing comprehensive datasets from its Seismological and GNSS stations to provide relevant recommendations to the FCT Administration.
“We urge the residents of Mpape, and by extension the wider Abuja area, to remain calm and continue their normal activities.”
NASRDA, he added is closely monitoring the situation and will soon implement measures to mitigate the seismic risks.
On the imminent flooding and associated risk to Southern parts of the country, Nnaji, said: “In line with the recent press release by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIISA), space-based monitoring by the United Nations Platform for Space-Based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UNSPIDER), which is hosted by NASRDA, has revealed alarming details regarding the activities surrounding the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.
“The overflow of the dam affected about 137 hectares of land between July 1 and 31. However, between August and September, a sharp increase was observed, with the overflow affecting 2,053 hectares by the end of August, and reaching a staggering 18,737 hectares by mid-September.
“These satellite images indicate a significant and escalating flood risk. We advise downstream states, including Kogi, Edo, Delta, Rivers, and Bayelsa, to activate all necessary flood control measures.”
While admitting the tremor vibrations that occurred on September 16, 2024, in residents of Mpape, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), experienced another series of earth tremors, adding:
“These tremors, six to eight in total, began around 11:00 p.m. According to data from the scismograms of seismic stations operated by the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics (an activity centre under the National Space Research and Development Agency), the seismic events were recorded.
“The data was analysed and processed by a team of researchers from the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, Toro, using the SEISAN and SeisComP earthquake analysis software.
“The result revealed three foreshocks at 11:12:10 p.m., 11:16:87 p.m., and 11:18:37 p.m. on Monday, 16th September, 2024, with the main shock occurring at 11:18:35 p.m. of the same day.
“Thereafter, three aftershocks were also felt at 11:32:10 p.m., 11:47:29 p.m., and 11:56:46 p.m. respectively.
“The main event which occurred at 11:18:37 p.m. was located on latitude 9.217°N and longitude 7.453°E with an estimated local magnitude of 3.1 and a focal depth of 11 km.
“The stress drop associated with this event was 2.3 bar, and the length of the fault displacement was 0.67 km.
“The local magnitudes of the first prominent foreshock and the last aftershock were 2.4 and 2.2, respectively.
The foreshocks may have occurred as a result of gradual strain withdrawal, which led to the total strain failure that caused the main event.”
According to him, this also reinforces earlier assertions of the reactivation of faults within the locality.
He added that further analysis shows a sudden displacement of about 3mm at around 00:00 hrs; which dropped to 2.8mm after 1 minute. The displacement finally stabilized after 14 minutes to about 0.169mm.