Dr. Benjamin Ayantunji is the Assistant Director of Research and Technical Secretary at the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA). In this interview with HELEN OJI, he speaks on the dangers of earth tremor and earthquake
What is earth tremor?
Earth tremor simply means vibration and shaking at the surface of the earth.
Difference between earth tremor and earthquake
They both have their origins under the earth surface, what you see at the top is the effect of what happens under the earth surface, the earth we stand on is ratified and is structured in layers. Where we are standing on is the Breton part or is the earth core underneath. You have the semi multi region referred to as the mantle, under the mantle you have a solid structure which is referred to as the core. Inside the curve you have liquid structure which is referred to as the inner core. The earth itself is dynamic and the earth is growing always, the growth of the earth does not increase. That is why the earth is broken into what we refer to as plate, this plates are continually located where you have the plates coming towards each other or the plates are moving away from each other and there are situations where the plates are moving at parallel. As this plate move there are times that there is a force that occurs under the earth, the release of energy is the cause of earthquake and it is that force that cause the earth to break, so the breakage is what is called earthquake the effect of it, is what we see at the surface of the earth. When earthquake occurs there is actual breakage of substructure under the surface of the earth and that is what is called earth tremor. When the pressure is applied or one of them moves away there is no breakage from each other, earth tremor occurs when there is release of energy but there is no breakage. Both can lead to devastating effects depending on where it occurs, if it occurs in a place that is not densely populated you will not feel the effect, but if it occurs where you have high rising buildings, and the energy is much because of that shaking and you will see damage on the structures and that is when you see loss of lives.
On September 11, 2016 an earth tremor occurred in Kaduna, what did your agency do about it?
We are bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, like we and South American we are sought of moving away from each other. We the Africans are not sure it will occur here. An area that people are not prepared for it, can automatically become a danger zone because the people living in that environment are not prepared for it, in a region where they are having such occurrence they should prepare for it. The people of Kaduna have not experienced such incident and that is why there was panic in Kaduna. It will be that we are deceiving ourselves to think that we are completely safe, I have an experience during my masters programme where the building of the School of Baptism Seminary where the classroom was shaking and the students were panicking in 2002 in Osogbo, I did a study on that for we believe that in Nigeria there is major fault that comes from the Atlantic that passes through Ijebu, Kwara, Osogbo and southern Kaduna down to Taraba state. That means there is a movement towards that boundary and it can lead to earthquake.
What are the environmental challenges of earth tremor and earthquake?
When it happens it can lead to destruction of properties and loss of lives, it causes deformation of the earth surface and earthquake causes changes on the structure of the earth. Imagine what happened in southern Kaduna to happen in Oshodi in Lagos because of the panic so many people will run and a lot of people will lose their lives.
What is your agency doing about it?
Earthquake and earth tremor are like every other natural disaster, you cannot stop it or prevent it but you can study and predict the pattern. What my agency is doing is that even before the earth tremor in Kaduna happened, we have a center in Toro and centers across the nation to study the movement, the essence of studying this movement is to say that you that is in these area be careful and that is what we can do to pass information and create awareness to those living in such areas.
Are they signs of Earth Tremor?
The major sign you will see a day or two days after is animal, animals like rat they refuse to stay in the hole because before it arrive they heard it coming and they are panicking. These are one of the things you will see, if you are sensitive enough. Another sign, you have a hard dig well today there is no water and tomorrow when you come you find out that the well is filled to the brim and there is no rain, then something is happening under the earth.
Tremor itself may be a warning to a bigger thing which is earthquake if earth tremor occurs continually in a location that may be a pointer because when this energy pile in the earth surfaces it looks for a way to release itself. When you see earth tremor occurring continually, know that something bigger is coming and that is danger.
Nature is the same everywhere, when things occurs we always attribute to God, spirit and deity; it has nothing to do with it and is a natural occurring thing and as a matter of fact, we have the capability to predict, we can tell you this is what is going to happen and if only the government can put more funds to the agency, if we can have more centers, we can capture more areas. Most of these things depend on funding and if there are more funds we will do better.
