Dr. Zuhair Nawwab, president of the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), has said that volcanic activity at Madina's Al-Ais area is gradually declining. He said that Al-Ais residents felt only 12 tremors, the last occurring on Saturday morning that measured 3.7 on the Richter scale. Nawwab said that an SGS team was studying possibility of installation of a network of cameras to monitor volcanic vapors at Harra area, where volcanic fields are situated. That way, he added, experts would be in a better position to predict a volcanic eruption. He, however, said that the tremors were distributed over a depth range of around 7 km and volcanic eruption was unlikely to occur. Nawwab said three teams had been dispatched to Al-Ais to monitor thermal activity, chemical changes, and level of Radon gas in groundwater and to set up a seismic station. This station would be in addition to the existing one surrounding Harra, north of Harrat Al-Shaqqah to increase accuracy, he added.
