Tangau: Sabah can expect another Richter 6.0 earthquake

Madius-Tangau KOTA KINABALU: Science, Technology and Environment Minister Madius Tangau says another earthquake as strong as that which hit the Ranau region in Sabah on June 5 last year, could reoccur in the same area.

Last year’s earthquake, which registered 6.0 on the Richter scale, killed 18 climbers including four guides on Mount Kinabalu. It also jolted the surrounding areas which have suffered tremors for months.

Ranau is in the vicinity of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia’s highest peak.

Tangau said the timeline likely for the next earthquake was in the next two to three decades.

“Earthquakes are unpredictable but using past records, we can provide a return period of the same magnitude earthquake at the previous location,” Tangau was quoted as saying by The Star.

“Comparatively, Sabah has a higher risk compared with Sarawak and the peninsula.”

The Mensaban and the Lobou-Lobou Fault Zones in the Kundasang-Ranau and Lahad Datu-Tawau Fault zones are still active, Tangau said.

“There have been earthquakes in these areas and they have caused and will continue to cause damage to the infrastructure there,” he said according the daily.

The Lahad Datu area had a Ritcher 5.8 earthquake in 1976.

Citing a study entitled “A Seismic, Tsunami Hazard and Risk Study” by the Meteorological Department, the Tuaran MP said further studies were needed to “monitor and gauge” the movement of unknown active faults to work out the possibility of bigger earthquakes in the future.

Malaysia, despite being outside the Pacific Ring of Fire, was bordered by Indonesia and the Philippines, two of the most seismically active countries in the region and faces a certain degree of earthquake risk, Universiti Malaya Geology Department Assoc Prof Mustaffa Kamal Shuib told The Star.

“The result would be tremors in the peninsula and tremors and earthquakes of local origin in Sabah.

“The Sunda land is being pushed towards the north-east by the Indian Australian plate.”

Malaysia, he added, was being pushed west by the Pacific and the Philippines plate, and was also being pushed downwards towards the south by the Eurasian plate. In short, the country was being compressed all over and absorbing all the stress due to the interaction of plates.

“One way to release the stress was to break along fault lines,” Mustaffa said, according to The Star, adding “when that happens, there are these tremors in the peninsula.”