A tremor measuring 3 degrees on the Richter scale hit Al-Aredah governorate here in the early morning hours of Thursday, a few weeks after two similar tremors were registered in Al-Nimas in Asir. No casualties or damage has been reported. However, precautionary measures are being taken to deal with all eventualities. Lieutenant Yahia Al-Qahtani, spokesperson at the Civil Defense Department in Jizan, said the National Center for Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Riyadh confirmed the tremor in a mountain area, 75 km east of Jizan city. According to Dr. Abdullah Mohammad Al-Amri, supervisor of the Seismic Study Center at King Saud University, the southern area of the Kingdom and Red Sea are located in the seismic zone of Al-Aqaba Bay, and that 170 tremors were registered here between 1990 and 1994. According to a study Al-Amri conducted, the movement of earthquakes in this region was affected by some 400 earthquakes ranging in magnitude between 7.6 and 8.2 degrees during 1913 and 1996. He added that most of these earthquakes occurred within the Red Sea. He said the strongest earthquakes in the Red Sea area occurred in 1941, 1955 and 1982, causing loss of lives and physical damage. Al-Amri said recurrence of mighty earthquakes in this area is an indication that the area might be hit by an earthquake of about 6 degrees every 40 years. – Okaz __
