Iran quakes: No impact on Dubai

By PMA Rasheed

The Gulf Today, 22 July 2010

The recent Iran earthquakes that occurred about 220 kilometres away, north-west of Dubai, had no significant impacts on the Emirate, says the civic body.

A report by Dubai Municipality’s (DM) local earthquake monitoring network has confirmed that the seismic activity of the set of tremors didn’t affect the Emirate’s geographical condition due to the distance of Dubai from southern Iran, where the earthquakes were witnessed.

Mohammed Mashroom, director of survey department in the DM, said that the municipality recorded the main tremor of 5.7 on the Richter scale at 11.38pm on July20, which had caused no casualties.

“But, many residents living in high-rise towers across the emirate felt a slight tremor of short duration,” he added.

“Some small tremors before the main quake near the same area were also detected and some of the aftershocks of this earthquake were also monitored,” pointed out Mashroom.

According to him, the activity was located on the seismic belt areas stretching north-west parallel to the Zagros mountain range, as a result of the collision of the Arabian plate with the Eurasian plate.

“The areas are within the seismic belts, but the earthquake did not affect the facilities in Dubai, as its designs are in accordance with the code of earthquakes,” he said.

“The first system to monitor the movements of the earth’s crust in the UAE was launched by Dubai Municipality. The monitoring has been varied supporting latest seismology technologies installed at four field stations that always had a wide range,” noted Mashroom.

He added that each seismology station of the municipality contains a device to record the seismic activity and another device for recording acceleration of the earth, as these stations are distributed in different parts of the emirate.

“It also supports different bodies with these data, including the National Centre for Seismology in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Police, Civil Defence and other bodies. The regional seismological activities are studied and followed up in real time,” he added.