The Federal Government said it has begun a thorough investigation into what caused the recent earth tremors that occurred in Mpape, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The earthquakes started in the night of September 16, 2024, leaving members of the community in shock, with six to eight seismic events reported.
They were first reported at about 11:00 p.m., causing a lot of concern due to loud noise and vibrations on the ground.
The Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Mr. Uche Nnaji, has assured the public that a team of experts at the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, a division of the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, is working actively on the tremors with sophisticated earthquake analytical software.
According to the records by seismographs, the earthquakes included three foreshocks and three aftershocks; the main seismic event occurred at 11:18:37 pm with a local magnitude of 3.1, and the focal depth was 11 km.
Scientists have attributed this heavy geological turmoil to reactivated faults around Mpape, the same region that has, on other occasions, witnessed similar quakes, especially between September 5 and 7, 2018.
The Chief of NASRDA said that the earthquakes have, of course, generated concern; however, there should not be any need to panic over this because their team is actually with eyes on the situation.
He further said that government was studying months of data from seismic and Global Navigation Satellite Systems stations to form mitigation plans.
