Although Nigeria is not located within the major seismic zones of the world; over the years, several minor earthquakes have been experienced in some parts of the country. The first widely reported occurrence of an Earth tremor in
The evaluation of an intra-plate earthquake that occurred on Friday, 11 th September, 2009 and felt in parts of Abeokuta, Ago-Iwoye, Ajambata, Ajegunle, Imeko, Ijebu-Ode, Ilaro and Ibadan, all in south western Nigeria is presented. This event has been the largest inland earthquake recorded since the inception of digital seismological recording in Nigeria in 2008 was incepted. The event was recorded by three seismological stations operated by Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics (CGG), Toro. Data obtained from the CGG stations and others distributed around the world were analysed to determine precise earthquake locations and focal mechanism and to assess the regional tectonic stress. The data recorded in MiniSEED format at a sampling rate of 40 samples per second (sps) were analyzed using the SEISAN earthquake analysis software. The result showed an epicentral location situated about 108 km west of Lagos, a focal depth of 10.0 km and an origin time of 03:10:21.60 GMT. The local and moment magnitudes were 4.5 and 4.2 respectively. The P-wave to S-wave velocity ratio was 1.72. The fault plane solutions obtained for the rupture process indicated that a normal dip-slip fault with median solution of strike 325˚, dip 40˚ and rake −90˚ was the probable trigger mechanism for this earthquake. It suggested that the event was a reactivation of a buried high-angle fault in the Precambrian basement represented by the contemporary northeast-southwest trending regional horizontal compressive stress. Generally, the seismotectonics of the region was linked to the fracture zones in the Atlantic Ocean.
Recent seismic events recorded in South-western Nigeria indicate that the country may not be aseismic as had hitherto thought. Geologic and geodetic evidences suggest the existence of large fracture zones (Romanche and Charcot) beneath the area. Considering the existence of these fracture zones, and the paucity of seismicity information, the development (oil exploration and production) taking place in offshore Nigeria in the last two decades and the ambitious planning for large future projects urgently call for the implementation of a comprehensive earthquake ground motion modelling which is a useful tool in site-dependent seismic hazard assessment in low to moderate seismicity region. In this study, ground-attenuation modelling based on stochastic approach was applied to predict the expected peak ground velocity and acceleration and spectral amplifications in two geologic settings. The seismic ground motion has been modelled using the September 11, 2009 earthquake of magnitude 4.8 (Mw) as case study. Synthetic seismic waveforms from which parameters for engineering building design could be obtain have been derived. From the seismograms computed, the seismic hazard for south-western Nigeria, expressed in terms of peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity have been estimated. The peak ground acceleration estimated for the study area ranges from 0.16 to 0.69 g, and the peak ground velocity from 18.0 to 58.3 m/sec. The high peak values of accelerations and amplifications delineated are possibly due to the presence of the low velocity layers. In general, a good correlation between the synthetic and field data was observed. These results attest to the efficacy of the modelling exercise, and assessment of the seismic risk that the region would likely be subjected to. Also, the earthquake engineering design parameters derived may be used to derive new civil engineering building codes for the affected area
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