Sabah quake: No more big one but aftershocks to continue, says geologist

Search and Rescue personnel discussing rescue operations at the foot of Mount Kinabalu.

PETALING JAYA: A geologist believes that Sabah will not be hit again with an earthquake the magnitude of Friday's 5.9 on the Richter scale.

"The worse is behind us and the aftershocks in Sabah are expected to die down in the next few days," said  University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Prof Dr Felix Tongkul.

He said the aftershocks should not be more than 4.0 magnitude that would continue for a few more days.

"The earthquake is along an active fault line which cuts across Ranau and Mount Kinabalu in a northwest-southeast direction and an earthquake occurs roughly every 25 years.

"The last one, a 5.4 magnitude tremor which hit Ranau in 1991, also had aftershocks which slowly died down in a few days," he said when contacted.

Ranau near where Friday's epicentre lies was shaken by a 4.5 magnitude tremor earlier Saturday.

Friday's earthquake has so far claimed the lives of 19 climbers and mountain guide.

Tongkul said there has been about 31 aftershocks so far according to the data from the Malaysian Meteorological Department.

"But earthquake data here over the years is poor and we can only work with what we have," he said.

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