Minor coastal tremors off Dubai

By staff - Wed Jun 20, 5:16 am

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Two separate tremors in the Arabian Sea felt on the mainland

Bindu Suresh Rai – Emirates24x7

Published Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The green dot indicates the 12.53am earthquake, off the cost of Muscat. Courtesy: NCMS. (SUPPLIED)

Karen Siska was letting her dog out into the backyard when the rattling of the windows took her by surprise.

Lasting for but a few seconds, Siska put it down to some construction work in the neighbourhood, when a following rattle that even jogged her door had the British national sit up and take notice.

“At first I put it down to some vibrations reverberating from some groundwork taking place nearby, but when the second and third rattle sounded and my dog was completely spooked, I was almost positive these were tremors.”

Siska wasn’t alone; social media is abuzz since last evening 7.40pm with many concerned residents taking to Twitter and Facebook to confirm if it indeed was an earthquake that had things rattling in their wake.

Other reports coming in also reported similar tremors in Jumeirah 1, 2 and 3, Umm Suqeim, Al Safa and Jebel Ali.

“I thought I was going mad for a few minutes, but when I saw on Facebook that others too in the area were reporting three aftershocks, I felt relieved at least that it wasn’t my far fetched imagination,” said Tony Townsend.

According to the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology and Seismology, an earthquake measuring 3.1 magnitude was felt at 12.53am on June 20, 140km off the coast of Muscat in the Gulf of Oman, which was followed by a minor tremor at 3.55am on mainland Ras Al Khaimah.

Many others shrugged off concerns over social media, with Mark Sweet saying: “Living near Iranian fault line and can send up tremors down the coast. It is hardly something to lose sleep over.”