Saudi Arabia: Rumblings from extinct Al-Ais volcanoes send villagers into panic

Yousuf Muhammad | Arab News

MADINAH: Rumblings from the direction of extinct volcanoes in Al-Ais, which was hit by a series of tremors over the last couple of weeks, sent villagers in the area into a state of near panic in the early hours of yesterday. “Most of the local people spent the night in a state of extreme anxiety when a thunder-like rumble was heard,” one worried resident told Arab News yesterday. Despite repeated reassurances from the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) that there was nothing to worry about, the provincial branch of the Civil Defense is battle-ready with personnel and equipment to face any eventuality. Civil Defense teams have been patrolling villages where tremors were experienced to reassure people. The teams are also checking the safety of buildings in the region. Arab News visited the grim looking Al-Harrah Mountain, the source of the rumbling noise and the epicenter of the recent tremors. The mountain, with its jet-black stones and sand devoid of any flora and fauna, diffused an air of eeriness all around. The black mountain had all the trappings of a volcano that died out thousands of years ago. Sprawled over an area of 2,863 sq. km, Al-Ais, which is 150 km northeast of Yanbu and 240 km north of Madinah, has an estimated population of 60,000 people. The town was an ancient resting place for caravans traveling between the western and southern cities of the Arabian Peninsula and Syria. According to the SGS, the tremors were due to subterranean volcanic activity in the Harrat Al-Shaqqah area. The SGS registered 11 seismic tremors since last Tuesday in Al-Ais, the biggest of which measured 3.7 on the Richter scale. A US scientist currently visiting the Kingdom dismissed the tremors as usual underground activity that did not pose any threat to the safety of people living in the area. “The tremors experienced in some villages in Madinah province are normal and not dangerous. It is normal underground movement along a fault line,” said Farooq Al-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University.