By Ebubekir Yahya
Turkiye and neighbouring Syria's tryst with massive earthquakes in February that killed more than 60,000 people and displaced millions has caused aftershocks elsewhere in the world too, especially in regions lying on the so-called fault lines.
Some African countries are among those where earthquakes are more likely to occur, sparking discussions and debates on not just their predictability but also the potential for devastation.
The earth lies on different layers of rocks and plates that naturally sleep or move from time to time as a result of seismic phenomena.
Experts say these rocks and plates are connected, and when a crack occurs on the planet’s surface, it is said to be a fault.
This crack develops and eventually causes an earthquake, often leaving in its trail widespread destruction. The cracks could span a small distance or extend to hundreds of miles.
According to Professor Maigari Abubakar, a geology lecturer at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi in Nigeria, ‘"the breakage happens in different sizes and movements of plates against one another causes the faulting".
African countries on fault lines
Seismology categorises faults into three types – strike-slip fault, normal fault and reverse fault – depending on how plates and rocks move relative to each other.
The most devastating of these faults is the strike-slip fault that causes significant earth movement, often resulting in the collapse of structures like buildings and other infrastructure.
A number of countries in Central, West and Northern Africa lie on fault lines where tectonic movement can occur at any time.
There are fears in Africa about the possibility of being struck by earthquakes whose potential for devastation increases due to the presence of volcanic rocks and mountains in some parts of the continent.
According to a joint 2015 study by UNESCO, the Organisation of African Geological Survey and Commission for the Geological Map of the World, the existence of fault lines in Africa poses a high risk of tremors or earthquakes.
West Africa, extending from Nigeria to Senegal, is seen as less susceptible to earthquakes, the study notes.
In December 1983, an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude on the Richter scale did hit the region, affecting parts of Guinea and killing around 300 people.
The study says that another region in the continent facing the danger of earthquakes due to fault lines is North-West Africa – stretching from Tunisia to Algeria and Mauritania.
A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake in this region wrought havoc on the Africa-Eurasia boarder in 1980.
Continent on a stable plate?
The plates that bind the regions together beneath the earth's surface has cracks. The region comprising Libya and Egypt also experiences earthquakes, albeit not frequently.
This region sits on two fault lines – the Africa-Eurasia fault and the Red Sea plate fault.
The fourth region facing the possibility of an earthquake is Central Africa, comprising faults that span the volcanoes of Cameroon, Angola, Chad and Congo basin.
The fifth one is part of the East African Rift System, extending to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The last region facing the threat of seismic activities is Southern Africa, which has already had large and small-magnitude earthquakes.
This region encompasses Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. In 2006, 7-magnitude earthquake hit the region.
As geology lecturer Abubakar points out, the good news is that "the African plate is a stable one, comprising an oceanic crust that is part of the Atlantic and Indian oceans bounding the continent".
He believes that overall, there is little to worry about the possibility of major earthquakes similar to those that struck Turkiye and Syria recently.
But experts warn that this should not be cause for complacency in adopting measures to mitigate the potential impact of earthquakes in the continent.
