Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State

The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has commenced investigation into the recent tremor in Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Spokesperson for the agency,  Dr Felix Ale  said in a statement on Wednesday that the nature of the sources of the tremor will soon be determined after the completion of the nvestigation.

He added that so far, “reports have established that the incidents were recorded in Kwoi and surrounding villages of Nok, Sanbah and Chori in Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Sunday, September 11 and Monday September 12

“The current findings are the outcome of a preliminary report by the team of experts immediately deployed to the affected communities from one of the activity centers of the space agency.

“Centre for Geodesy and Geo-dynamics has carried out on-the- spot assessment as well as survey investigation on the incident.”

He also revealed the agency’s  Head of the Seismology Division, Dr. Ofonime Akpan, led the team that was able to establish that the Seismological Station of NASRDA located at Kujama in Kaduna State accurately recorded the incident.

He said that the record made it easy for collation of data and early release of preliminary reports on the incident.

He quoted Akpan as saying: “the analysis showed that the first event occurred at 12:28:16.50 seconds GMT on Sept.11 and the event has an epicentre located Latitude 9.825N and Longitude 7.885 E while Local Magnitude was 2.6 and Moment Magnitude was 3.0 and Focal Depth was 10 km.

“The report further showed that the second event occurred on Sept. 12 at 03:10:48.80 seconds (GMT) with Local Magnitude of 2.6 and Moment Magnitude of 2.9 with Focal Depth of 10km while the epicentre was Latitude 10.879N and Longitude 7.188E.

“That was followed immediately by another event at 03:11:20.00 seconds (GMT) located at an epicentre of Latitude 9.927N and Longitude 7.297E, Local Magnitude 2.9 and Moment Magnitude 3.0.

“The reports showed the time of occurrence of the events and intensities of the locations as reported by inhabitants of the communities, which included cracks on walls of buildings, falling off of ceiling fans and other items.

“It corresponds with the results of analysis carried out by the team of experts from NASRDA’s Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics.”

NASRDA  appealed to residents of the various communities to remain calm as efforts would be made by  to unravel the situation as more data were aggressively being collected from other seismological stations.

The agency promised to make its detailed reports known to the public as soon as further investigations on the incident were completed.

The Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics in Toro, Bauchi State, is one of the Activity Centers of Excellence of the agency in different geo-political zones of the country.

The centre is charged specifically with the mandates of crustal and coastal deformation monitoring, seismic hazard evaluation and monitoring as well as research in natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and subsistence.

NASRDA has successfully carried out several projects and research for national development among which are series of investigations on peculiar geo-hazards in Nigeria.

They include the application of Laser Technologies for Subsistence monitoring along the coastal lines of Lagos and Port Harcourt and Development of a geo-hazard map showing some areas that are susceptible to natural hazards.

It has also established what is globally known as the Nigeria National Network of Seismic Stations located in Abuja, Kaduna, Ile-Ife, Awka, Abakaliki, Minna, Ibadan, Nsukka and Oyo town.

NASRDA said that this is done to improve seismic data acquisition and encourage more research activities regarding seismicity in Nigeria, particularly in times of natural disasters.

Meanwhile, the Interim Chairman of Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Ben Kure has said  reports in the social media on the magnitude of the earth tremor in the area were largely exaggerated.