No surface tremors following South China Sea earthquake, says MetMalaysia

KOTA KINABALU: The earthquake that occurred in the South China Sea early Monday (April 3) morning which went viral on social media, did not cause any tremors on the surface, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia).

In a statement on Tuesday (April 4), the department said this was because the earthquake occurred at a depth of 611 kilometres (km) and no aftershocks were triggered after close observation.

The MetMalaysia National Seismic Network detected the earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 at 6.45 degrees North and 115.87 degrees East in the South China Sea at 3.32 am.

"Accordingly, the information of the earthquake was recorded yesterday and not released to the public, but MetMalaysia will continue to monitor the earthquake event. The location of the earthquake is generally outside the active earthquake zone or outside the Pacific Ring of Fire," it said.

On Monday, news claiming that an earthquake had occurred in the South China Sea, about 54km from Kota Kinabalu, went viral on social media.

According to MetMalaysia, based on the fifth edition of the Department of Minerals and Geoscience (JMG) 2009 seismtectonic map, the earthquake was located in an area of ‘inactive thrust fault’.

"Earthquakes in the sea with a magnitude of less than five and a depth of more than 300 km will not affect the surface," it said. - Bernama