Karen Siska was letting her dog out into the backyard when the rattling of the windows took her by surprise.
Lasting for but a few seconds, Siska put it down to some construction work in the neighbourhood, when a following rattle that even jogged her door had the British national sit up and take notice.
“At first I put it down to some vibrations reverberating from some groundwork taking place nearby, but when the second and third rattle sounded and my dog was completely spooked, I was almost positive these were tremors.”
Siska wasn’t alone; social media is abuzz since last evening 7.40pm with many concerned residents taking to Twitter and Facebook to confirm if it indeed was an earthquake that had things rattling in their wake.
Other reports coming in also reported similar tremors in Jumeirah 1, 2 and 3, Umm Suqeim, Al Safa and Jebel Ali.
“I thought I was going mad for a few minutes, but when I saw on Facebook that others too in the area were reporting three aftershocks, I felt relieved at least that it wasn’t my far fetched imagination,” said Tony Townsend.
According to the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology and Seismology, an earthquake measuring 3.1 magnitude was felt at 12.53am on June 20, 140km off the coast of Muscat in the Gulf of Oman, which was followed by a minor tremor at 3.55am on mainland Ras Al Khaimah.
Many others shrugged off concerns over social media, with Mark Sweet saying: “Living near Iranian fault line and can send up tremors down the coast. It is hardly something to lose sleep over.”
NCMS denies earthquake shocks
The National Center of Meteorology '&' Seismology (NCMS) has denied media reports of an earthquake last night which hit south of Iran and felt by residents in UAE residents, Wam said.
The Center said in a statement today that the last seismic activity monitored by the national network for monitoring earthquakes in south of Iran was at 9:16 am yesterday. The magnitude of the tremor was 4.2 on the Richter scale, about 400 km away from the country. Therefore it was not possible to feel intensity of the earthquake due to its weak power and far-off proximity, the centre added.
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