Earth tremor: Huge buildings on earthquake-prone areas stand at risk – Dr. Gyamera

Engr. Dr. Ebenezer Ankomah Gyamera, Land Use and Spatial Planning lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), has said that earth tremors occur when a force exerted on the rock mass exceed its strength.

According to him, the causes are due to geological factors or activities which might have shifted the pattern of stresses in the earth cruft.

Engr. Dr. Ebenezer Ankomah Gyamera said, concerning the Wednesday, June 24, earth tremor in some parts of the country, huge buildings stand at risk of causing disaster in places termed as earthquake-prone areas.

“Areas like Kasoa, Weija, [and] others are having these huge buildings which shouldn’t receive a single storey building, let alone having these huge buildings so it could cause them to collapse as a result of displacement,” Engr. Dr Gyamera told TV Africa in an interview.

He added, “These occurrences [are] the earth movement due to the stress on the bedrocks or rock mass...and other actions that cause the movement of the earth. It also happened due to geologic reasons beneath the ground.”

He observed that other natural factors can also lead to these kinds of earth movement.

Engr. Dr. Ebenezer A. Gyamera stated that anytime he passes by these earthquake-prone areas and sees the huge buildings being built by some residents he feels that there is a disaster waiting to happen soon.

“As Ghanaians, putting up these huge buildings along the natural fault lines must not be encouraged...We don’t even go in for geological or geotechnical report from the Geological Survey Department. Anytime we are to put up huge buildings, we need to get a geological report to show whether or not the ground can contain the building and follow standard building procedures,” he advised.

He explained that the tremor is a warning that something might happen therefore there should be some measures in place to curtail it.

Parts of Accra were shaken by a fleeting earth tremor last Wednesday night which threw residents into fear and panic.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the tremors recorded a magnitude of 4.0 with a 10.0-kilometre depth at 10: 53 pm.

It was felt three times in a space of 10 minutes and shook buildings.

Some of the areas the tremor was felt were Gbawe, McCarthy Hill, Kaneshie, Tesano, Dansoman and Dunkonaa.

Others are Abeka Lapaz, Achimota, Santa Maria, Adenta, Weija, and East Legon.

The rest are Madina, Kwabenya, Nsawam, Koforidua, Swedru, Dodowa, and Tema.