Monrovia – An earthquake of 7.1 magnitude on the Richter scale with depth of 10km on Monday occurred 1050 km west off the coast of Monrovia.
According to the Earth Chronicles website, the epicenter of the earthquake was 646.4 miles away from Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County in the Atlantic Ocean but it is not a threat to Liberia or its neighbors.
The quake occurred less than a week after a deadly earthquake measuring 6.2 on the moment magnitude scale, hit in Italy, killing 292 people, injuring 388 and leaving 2,900 homeless.
Geologists here attribute the quake to routine geological occurrences and have called for calm among the Liberian population.
“We don’t have to worry about it,” former Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy Dr. Eugene Shannon told FrontPage Africa on Tuesday. “Earthquake can occur anywhere in the world when tension builds up and erupts. We have to understand that.”
Dr. Shannon said though the Monday earthquake measured an unusual magnitude and occurred in an area not known for earthquakes, the distance of 1050 km puts Liberia in a safe zone despite being the epicenter for the quake.
“Places like Japan, earthquakes occur after every five minutes,” he said, reemphasizing the normalcy of the earthquakes in certain regions that could be deep under the ocean.
Dr. Shannon’s comments were backed by the Senior Researcher at the Liberian Geological Survey of the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, Jenkins Dorbor.
“I don’t think that it is a threat to Liberia as a whole because it far and it happened since [Monday] and if it would have been a threat to Liberia we could be feeling some movement,” Dorbor said.
“Sometimes, before there is an earthquake in an area you would see the ants moving. Even the birds, they have very sensitive nerves and they can tell when an earthquake is about to happen.
“Maybe something (earthquake) closer to us will happen one day but not this particular one. It is going to die down completely.”
On December 22, 1983, there was an earthquake in Guinea whose shocks were felt in some parts of Liberia. Dr. Shannon, then the head of the Liberian Geological Survey, led a team of geologists to Guinea to investigate the implications of the quake to Liberia. The team recommended to the People Redemption Council (PRC) regime that an investigation into Liberia’s Todee Sheer zone be conducted because an earthquake was could occur in the area.
However, Dr. Shannon said 33 years was a long a time, making the Todee Sheer no longer an earthquake concern and had no relation to what happened in the Atlantic on Monday.
“The Todee Sheer has existed for long and we have not experienced [anything]. What happened 591 miles off the coast does not have any significance,” Dr. Shannon said.
Dr. Shannon said fishermen and people living closer to the coast had nothing to fear as the situation was different from a tsunami, which he pointed is not a geological occurrence known to take place in the Atlantic Ocean.
James Harding Giahyue/Special to FrontPageAfrica