Dr Felix Tongkul, who teaches geology, said despite the increasing occurrence of tremors hitting Sabah of late, none of them pose any danger to buildings.
“There is nothing much to worry about these weak quakes. However, I expect more weak earthquakes in the future,” he said.
Sabah was hit with two earthquakes measuring 3.0 and 3.9 magnitude within less than 24 hours on Thursday and Friday.
Tongkul who had predicted a major earthquake to hit Sabah still stood by this view and pointed to Lahad Datu as the possible next town to be hit.
The east coast town suffered a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in 1976 although no casualty was reported.
Both Lahad Datu and Ranau, the centre of the June 2015 earthquake that claimed 18 lives, have been experiencing minor earthquakes almost on a monthly basis this year.
The locals in both districts are getting accustomed with the tremors, some of them do not even realise when the quakes struck.
A Ranau shopkeeper Mesia Dilla, 53, said she only found out there was a small earthquake, measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale on Thursday, when her daughter asked her about it.
“She is working in Kota Kinabalu and when she read about it on social media, she was naturally quite concerned because the epicentre was in Ranau. But honestly, I did not even feel it,” she said.
The quake which occurred at 11.40am on Friday reportedly lasted only 10 seconds.
Thursday’s 3.0 quake hit Sapulut, about 200km from Kota Kinabalu.
There were no small earthquakes occurring prior to the 2015 earthquake but it should not be used as a yardstick to rule out a similar big quake.
Tongkul said the 2015 tragedy had prompted the Malaysian Meteorology Department (MetMalaysia) to add several seismic stations across the state, especially in earthquake prone areas of Ranau and some areas on the east coast of Sabah.
“This means the department can now record even the smallest earthquakes. The existing stations prior to the 2015 earthquake can already detect earthquakes but the resolution was not high,” he said.
As such, he did not rule out the possibility that there were indeed small earthquakes leading up to the 2015 earthquake, but they went undetected.
In the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, Tongkul had come out to warn of an impending bigger earthquake of around 6.0 on the Richter scale, possibly in Lahad Datu.
“When will this happen? Nobody knows. But it is coming,” he had said.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/sabahsarawak/2015/07/01/kinabalu-may-have-lost-height-after-earthquake/