5.2 quake recorded in Aqaba, no injuries

AMMAN — An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale was registered at the port city of Aqaba, 330km south of the capital, at around 6:30pm on Saturday, but no damages or casualties were recorded, officials said.

According to Mahmoud Qariouti, director of the Jordan Seismological Observatory, the quake was centred at a depth of 10 kilometres and took place 57 kilometres south of Aqaba, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Jordan lies along the seismically active Dead Sea Transform Fault, with estimates predicting a major earthquake every 100 years.

Seismic activity is normal in the Jordan Rift Valley area, which extends from northern Jordan down to the Dead Sea and is part of the Great Rift Valley that stretches from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey down to the Zambezi Valley in southern Africa. In January, 1995, an earthquake registering 7.3 on the Richter scale was felt in Aqaba.