Responding to a UM geologist’s warning last week that reactivated ancient fault lines could cause an earthquake to hit Kuala Lumpur, another academician has come forward to (respectfully) tamp down the level of alarm among the public.
Dhaka University professor of geology Dr Aftab Alam Khan told The Star Online that while he respected the views voiced by Universiti Malaya geologist Associate Professor Mustaffa Kamal Shuib, he stressed that it was very unlikely that KL could be hit by an earthquake any time soon.
“Seismogenic studies on KL’s fault line must be conducted in order to determine if earthquakes could happen,” he said.
Dr Aftab maintains that while ancient fault lines surrounding and criss-crossing Peninsular Malaysia could indeed be reactivated, the Sunda Shelf on which the peninsula sits moves very slowly, at a rate of only 11mm to 13mm per year as it is pushed around by seismic pressure from the Ring of Fire network of global fault lines.
Azmi Atan of the Malaysian Meteorological Department’s Earthquake and Tsunami Centre concurs with Dr AFtab’s assessment, but adds that the possibility of a KL quake remains real.
“The bottom line is that we are not an earthquake-prone country,” he said.
Last week, Professor Mustaffa mentioned that ancient fault lines lying under Peninsular Malaysia could reactivate in the wake of seismic activity in the region, including that which caused the earthquake which hit Sabah on June 5.
He said that in 2007 and 2009, he and his team detected tremors in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, which is situated close to the fault line that runs under KL.
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