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An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale was measured on the evening of 10 August, about 40 km east of Mekele, the capital of Tigray State, Atalay Ayele, a seismologist from the Geophysical Observatory at the Addis Ababa University, told IRIN on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported.
Atalay said he believed the area to be uninhabited, and that while houses had been vibrating and shaking in the town of Mekele, not much damage had been reported so far.
A series of minor earthquakes had been recorded coming from the same point since 7 August, and the observatory was continuing to monitor these, he said. "We think that was the main shock, and now they are decreasing."
The area is located at the rim of the Rift Valley, near a point at which the East African, Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden rifts converge. From a seismological perspective, Ayele said the area was "quite active".
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
