Half an hour before dawn, Segamat resident Yvonne Liu was jolted awake by a thunderous bang that lasted several seconds. Outside her window, dogs were barking loudly and anxiously.
“I felt the earth shake, like a dinosaur had passed by my house,” the 52-year-old housewife told The Straits Times on Aug 24 about the 4.1-magnitude earthquake that left her and her neighbours unnerved.
The earthquake struck Segamat – an inland Johor city of more than 200,000 residents some 180km north of Singapore – at 6.13am.
“The epicentre was located at 2.5 deg north and 102.8 deg east with a depth of 10km, 5km west of Segamat,” the Malaysian Meteorological Department said in a Facebook post.
Nearly three hours later, a low-magnitude quake of 2.8 hit Kluang, another Johor inland city 100km north of Singapore.
Tremors for both quakes were felt in some areas in Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and southern Pahang.
The authorities have not received reports of property damage or casualties so far, said Segamat district officer Mohd Ezzuddin Sanusi.
“The security authorities and relevant agencies are conducting further monitoring to ensure that Segamat district remains safe for the public,” Mr Ezzuddin said in a Facebook post just before 10am.
On Aug 24, Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi urged the public to stay calm and refer to the authoritative information from the meteorological department.
“Avoid spreading fake news that can create confusion,” Datuk Seri Zahid, who is also the National Disaster Management Agency chairman, said in a Facebook post.
While Peninsular Malaysia has historically experienced low seismic activity, the region is not immune to it, according to the National Disaster Management Agency’s website.
A 5.4-magnitude quake in January 1922 remains the strongest earthquake recorded, with its epicentre in Johor. This was followed by a 5-magnitude quake in February the same year. Between Nov 30, 2007, and Jan 14, 2008, a series of 13 earthquakes occurred along the Bukit Tinggi fault zone – an active fault spanning the Selangor and Pahang border.
Kenyir Dam in Terengganu; Kuala Pilah in Negeri Sembilan; and Manjung and Temenggor in Perak have also experienced quakes ranging from magnitudes 1.6 to 4.6.
The state of Sabah in East Malaysia experiences more frequent earthquakes, as it lies along three major fault lines. A fault line is a fracture in the earth’s crust where earthquakes occur due to shifting plates. In June 2015, a 5.9-magnitude quake struck Mount Kinabalu, killing 18 people.
Among those who died on Malaysia’s highest peak were 10 Singaporeans – seven pupils and two teachers from Tanjong Katong Primary School and a guide.
Urging people to remain calm after the quake on Aug 24, geologist Abd Rasid Jaapar noted that earthquakes in Malaysia are far less intense compared with those in Japan and Indonesia, which lie along the Pacific Ring of Fire – an area responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes and home to 75 per cent of its volcanoes.
“However, it is timely for the government to incorporate a disaster risk management programme in the school curriculum to educate people from a young age,” Mr Rasid, president of the volunteer-run National Association for GeoDisaster and Community Resilience Malaysia, told ST.
Segamat eatery owner Zulbahrin Mohamed, 60, said the quake hit while he was busying cooking for the breakfast crowd at 6.30am.
“Thank God, business went on as usual. No one had to take shelter outside. But the tremors were over in the blink of an eye. It didn’t occur to me what was happening,” he told ST.
Lu Wei Hoong and Harith Mustaffa for The Straits Times
