'Earthquake is a sudden release of some energy within the earth crust and the release does not just happen anywhere. Scientists believe that virtually all the continents are on its own plate and the plates are separated either by sea, oceans or may be hills and within the plates there are some areas called active zones and it is within the active zones that you always have the earthquake occurrence. Luckily for us in Africa, we are on a stable plate,' Bayewu told PANA.
Rumours of an imminent earthquake in Ghana created panic among thousands of people with many of them staying the night in the open.
They used short message service (SMS) and their cell phones to alert relatives even as government officials and experts denied the rumours.
'The only thing you just hear in Africa is may be small tremor, but for the real earthquake, Africa is not prone to it compare to other areas like Japan and part of the US. They are within the active zones or geologically speaking sub ductions zones,' the senior lecturer at the department of Earth Science, Olabisi Ona banjo University, Ago-Iwoye, in South West Nigeria, added.
The earthquake in Haiti left about 200,000 dead and at least half of the buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince destroyed, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent time.A
Also Chile,And then Turkey have had earthquakes in less than a week apart .Uganda a few days ago witnessed a landslide that left more than 300dead !
Global efforts are now being channelled in providing humanitarian assistance to the survivors of the earthquake, described by experts as the worst in 200 years.
Even though humanitarian shipments from several countries have arrived, delays and frustrations in distributions made difficult by destroyed infrastructure is putting the survivors further on edge.
Bayewu said African countries should also join the global efforts in providing relief materials to the Haitians, since the continent shares several similarities with the people.
Five days after the earthquake, a United Nations worker from Denmark was pulled alive from the rubble of the Minustah building in the capital city, shortly after the UN scribe, Ban Ki-Moon, left the town after a visit to assess the level of destruction.
Sixty other survivors have been found -- they were pulled out of the collapsed building, as teams from China, Israel and US continue to search for survivors.
The scientist also cautioned African countries against indiscriminate digging of the soil for deep wells, adding that though Africa was not within the earthquake zone, the continent was more prone to earth tremors.
'Ideally, you ought not to do anything in terms of building, digging or drilling without adequate consultation or certification of a qualified geologist anywhere in Africa," Bayewu warned.
He said earthquake could not be prevented in the most prone areas, but can be managed in a way to reduce damages that could occur from the destruction.
Bayewu urged Africans to cultivate good aptitude in managing the environment better.
'There should be greater awareness about our environment. People need to been lightened on what they need to do to promote the environment and what they shoul d not do that will negatively affects the ecosystem. Lets step up the awareness as was done in the campaign on HIV/AIDS. We should take the issue of the environment more seriously. I just pray Africa will not experience half of what has happened, otherwise it will be more disastrous," said the scientist.
