The sequence of earthquakes recorded between April 29th and May 1st, in the municipality of Feira Grande, is drawing the attention of the Brazilian scientific community.
There were 44 tremors in the short period and the largest tremor with magnitude 2.2 on the Richter Scale at a depth of almost ten kilometers.
The “seismic swarm” is a phenomenon that occurs when an earthquake does not occur in isolation. On the contrary, there are several shocks that arise in association. A tremor starts the process and, as if echoing the first, several aftershocks occur.
A Tribune heard from academics from the Geography course at the State University of Alagoas (Uneal), Sandro Maciel, Willian Almeida and Marcos Araújo about the earthquakes in Feira Grande, a municipality in the Agreste region of Alagoas and 136 km from Maceió.
The group of university students is carrying out research on earthquakes in the Agreste region, more precisely in the municipalities of Arapiraca and Craíbas.
They report that, according to the Geological Map of the Geological Survey of Brazil, there are faults and shear zones throughout the region, which result in the displacement and accommodation of rocks below the surface. These movements generate vibrations and propagate in various directions and are detected by sensors at universities and research and monitoring bodies.
For Professor Eduardo Menezes, geophysicist at the Seismological Laboratory (LabSis) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), scientifically, it is not possible to know when the earth will have released all its energy and will “fall asleep” again in Feira Grande.
“It’s a new region, seismically speaking. We are monitoring with the stations that can detect it, and Anadia is the closest. We have Let’s follow the evolution. In seismology there is no other station in Canhoba, in the interior of Sergipe”, he explains.
The geophysicist says it is not possible to predict exactly what may happen in the next few days.
“In our experience of monitoring, these are demonstrations that appear in a city, in a certain region, and can evolve with more events, or can, from one moment to the next, no longer have records. We are even looking at the possibility of installing equipment (seismograph) in the region to study the occurrences in more detail and carry out mapping. But, for now, we have to wait a little longer and observe the evolution and continue monitoring this evolution”, declared the geophysicist.
The UFRN Seismological Laboratory continues to monitor and publicize all activities that occur in the state of Alagoas and throughout the Northeast region of Brazil.
The tremors were recorded from the early hours of April 29th until last Wednesday (May 1st).
Since last year, the State University of Alagoas (Uneal), Arapiraca campus, created a research group to analyze the earthquakes that have been occurring in the interior of Alagoas, especially in the cities of Arapiraca and Craíbas.
Academics from the Geography course at the State University of Alagoas (Uneal) carry out research on earthquakes in Agreste and more precisely in the municipality of Arapiraca.
They report that, according to the Geological Map of the Geological Survey of Brazil, there are faults and shear zones throughout the region, which result in the displacement and accommodation of rocks below the surface. These movements generate vibrations that are detected by university sensors.
