No casualties in Tabuk earth tremor

Abdulaziz Al-Rouwaili TABUK — The residents of Tabuk, a border city, felt an earthquake that hit the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan early morning Tuesday but the Civil Defense said they received no information about deaths, injuries, damages or property loss. The residents said they felt the 4.8 Richter quake, which lasted for seconds, around 4:46 a.m. Director of the Saudi National Center for Earthquakes Hani Zahran said it was extremely difficult, if not at all impossible, to predict the place and time of earthquakes. "The tremors may continue or halt. The two possibilities remain to be valid," he said. Zahran is, however, of the opinion that the tremors that followed the earthquake may completely stop. According to the Saudi Geological Survey Authority, (GSA) there were about 85 tremors that followed the earthquake. He said the last strong earthquake hit the region on Nov. 11, 1995, which was 7.3 degrees on Richter scale. He said the residents of Tabuk, Madinah and the surrounding areas had felt it. Chairman of the GSA, Zuhair Nawwab said the earthquake activities were not new or surprising because they were happening at various times. He said the Gulf of Aqaba is an active earthquake region with immediate impact on a number of neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Palestine. Nawwab said since 1983 intermittent earth tremors were felt in various parts of the Kingdom but no serious shakes. He said the last earthquake activity in the Kingdom was registered about a year ago on 27 June 2015 and was 5.1 degrees on the Richter scale. He added that the earthquake was followed by about 30 tremors.