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Ammon News - The Jordanian Seismological Observatory (JSO), a branch of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, catalogued a total of 1,126 seismic events in the past year, highlighting a busy period of tectonic movement in and around the country.

The observatory's detailed report reveals a diverse range of seismic occurrences. Of these, 281 were local tremors, occurring within Jordan and its immediate border areas.

The Dead Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Araba Valley, and the Jordan Valley were identified as the primary centers of these local seismic events.

The observatory’s advanced seismic monitoring devices pinpointed 73 tremors in the Jordan Valley, with a further 56 detected in the Dead Sea region, among others.

Meanwhile, a significant 469 regional earthquakes were recorded in neighboring areas, spanning the Mediterranean, Cyprus, Turkey, Albania, the Red Sea, and Iran.

Additionally, the observatory noted 426 distant tremors, predominantly concentrated in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, underscoring the global scope of seismic activity.

Ghassan Suwaidan, head of the Seismic Observatory, provided insights into the regional seismicity.

He emphasized that seismic activity in Jordan and its surroundings is primarily concentrated along the borders of the Arab Plate, particularly in the Gulf of Aqaba and the collapse crater regions.

Suwaidan also noted that central and eastern Jordan appear to be the least affected by seismic movements.

The observatory employs a combination of 23 seismic monitoring stations and state-of-the-art technology to track, record, and analyze seismic data.

This network includes 20 Jordanian stations and three international stations, one affiliated with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization and two with the German Seismic Research Center.

Suwaidan highlighted the recent upgrades made to these stations, particularly in terms of remote operation capabilities.

An interesting aspect of the observatory’s function is its role in constructing a seismic information bank. This initiative, undertaken in 2022, aims to update the Jordanian building code and prepare a comprehensive earthquake catalog.

This catalog is intended to delineate the sources of seismic and tectonic activity in Jordan and neighboring regions.

Moreover, the observatory focuses on training technical personnel, both domestically and in Arab countries, while also developing educational bulletins and publishing seismic research in collaboration with various scientific entities.

Suwaidan elaborated on the technical process of earthquake recording and analysis at the observatory.

This involves measuring the arrival times of primary and secondary seismic waves, determining the direction and impact time of these waves at each station, and then analyzing this data to ascertain the earthquake’s exact timing, Richter scale magnitude, and the coordinates of its epicenter and depth.

Established in 1983, the JSO serves a critical role in monitoring seismic activity, assessing seismic risks in the region, and estimating potential damage from future seismic events. Petra