Four earthquakes strike UAE

Four moderate earthquakes hit the UAE early on Sunday, just a day after a tremor measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale struck Deba Al Fujairah on the east coast.

The latest earthquakes were felt by residents up and down the east coast, but there have been no reports of injuries or damage to property.

The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) said the first earthquake had a magnitude of 4.4 of the Richter scale and hit at 01.25.03 local time, with the quake's epicentre in the Gulf of Oman about 140 kilometres east of the city of Al Ain.

The second earthquake had a magnitude of 3.2 and hit at 01.25.15 and was centred north of the city of Fujairah, the NCMS said in a statement on its website.

The third, measuring 2.57, occurred at 03.34.24 and was also centred north of Fujairah, while the fourth measured 3.2 and took place at 08.30.00 with the epicentre around Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

The NCMS said the first three earthquakes were recorded in local seismic observatories and not in any of the regional observatories.

The centre said this was because the seismic depth of the point on the fault plane where the rupture started was very close to the surface, which resulted in a strong sense of the seismic waves in a limited area and a rapid decrease the level of the seismic waves as they moved away from the centre.