Tuesday, September 20, 2016, at about 9 am was a September to remember for the people of Kwoi community of Kaduna State as earth tremors - which is the mild form of earthquake disrupted social activities in the town.

Frightened residents had to exit buildings and move their families away from the tremor area. It was reported that some people noticed these tremors on Monday, however, the peak of vibrations was felt on Tuesday and the people were shocked and afraid.



A lot of people decided to leave their homes as they did not expect those old buildings could withstand a real earthquake or tremor.

That was the last date Kaduna state and Nigeria generally witnessed an earth tremor.

Cause of the Kaduna tremor

Experts feel that the tremors were not as a result of natural causes. They cited couple of man-made activities that could have given rise to the tremors like:

◆ Gurara Dam: Gurara Dam, Kaduna state might be one of the causes of the quake. Water is heavier than air, so when the valley behind a dam is filled, the crust underneath the water experiences a massive change in stress load. The Hoover Dam area in the US also experiences such.



◆ Gold mining: Mining leads to a huge change in the mass of a region, and huge mass changes lead to change in the earthquake stresses of an area, sometimes increasing the chance of an earthquake and other times lowering it.

Can a tremor occur again? When will Nigeria withness another tremor?

The Head of Geography Department of Kaduna State University at that time, Dr. Idowu Abbas, informed the public that constant earth tremors could lead to a major earthquake, and it could happen almost anywhere in Kaduna.

The Nigerian Space, Research and Development Agency informed the public that the tremor could lead to bigger incidents.

Despite many non-government organizations condeming the Federal Government and Local Government for not doing enough to protect citizens from the earth tremor,the main question about this earth tremor was ‘will it happen again?’.

According to Professor Hilary Inyang the CEO and President of Global Education and Infrastructure Services, this is very possible. He said ''the tremor in Kaduna was a result of rock shifting under the ground. There are two main reasons why this could happen. The first one is connected with the human factor - the blasting and mining of the earth could break the stones under the ground. It could also happen again due to natural factors - the underground seismic activity could cause the earth tremor. If you take a look at the two main factors of this tremor (natural seismic activity and human factors), you will understand that it can happen again.''

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Despite being a mild earthquake, it can have severe consequences therefore, it is necessary to know the very basic safety measures to take during an earth tremor. It is also necessary for government agencies to make an alert system to inform people about impending tremors as it is their responsibility to protect their populace.