KOTA KINABALU 8th February, 2010: It is better for Sabah to be hit by more weak earthquakes, said Dr Felix Tongkul of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah Natural Disaster Research Unit.
Speaking to the New Sabah Times last night, Dr Felix, a geologist, said that this phenomenon would help prevent the accumulation of pressure inside the earth which could cause a major tremor.
“Small tremors are actually the earth’s natural way to release pressure. It’s good for we don’t want it to accumulate. Having more small ones to hit us is a good thing,” he said in relation to yesterday’s mild earthquake that hit the Crocker Range. Strangely enough, no one felt the 2.6 magnitude quake that occurred at 6.1 degrees North and 116.8 degrees East at 2.07am yesterday.
“I heard about it on the television news this afternoon but I didn’t feel anything,” said Ranau district police chief, DSP Suhaimi Hashim when contacted by New Sabah Times yesterday.
A local contractor, Gabriel Kingan, 52, also said he did not realise the area was hit by an earthquake until his son in Kota Kinabalu who heard about it from the news called him.
The Meteorological Department in a statement said that a 2.6 magnitude earthquake occurred at 11km northeast of Ranau.
Dr Felix was not surprised that no one felt the tremor at such a small magnitude but to any geologist it was significant for it could help throw light as to how Sabah was formed, had evolved and is still evolving.
He said yesterday’s earthquake was not unexpected for an area like Ranau and Kundasang which are still geologically active. Records show that there have been many small earthquakes in the highland area. Dr Felix recalled one in 1991 measuring over 5 magnitudes that caused damage to building structures and roads.
“There’s fault movement under the ground. I’m not sure where it is exactly for I’m still studying it,” he said.
Any earth movement in the area is always expected with the presence of the geologically young Mount Kinabalu at more than 7 million years old.
Dr Felix said it is the way it stabilises itself by releasing remnants of geological forces.
But the most active fault movement is not in Ranau but Lahad Datu.
Asked if the geological history of Ranau and yesterday’s mild tremor were something to be concerned about, Dr Felix said that any earth’s movement, no matter how small, should never be ignored.
“Even a slight tremor could cause movements on the surface and for highland places landslides are not a remote possibility,” he said.
Fortunately, police confirmed that they did not receive any report on damages due to the mild quake.
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