Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the University of Jordan (UJ) signed a usufruct agreement on Wednesday to establish and regulate operations of a seismic monitoring station on the campus of the university’s branch in Aqaba, for a renewable 5-year period.
Under the agreement, the ministry-affiliated Jordanian Seismic Observatory (JSO) will be be granted a plot of land with an area of ??60 square meters to build a seismic monitoring station in Aqaba.
In a statement, the JSO director, Ghassan Sweidan, said the importance of the new station comes as the Kingdom is a country that witnesses seismic activities and is located on the western borders of the Arabian Plate, known for its recent and historical seismic record.
Aqaba is one of the Jordanian cities adjacent to seismic activity and one of the promising cities with urban expansion, he pointed out.
Sweidan pointed out that a total of 5 agreements were signed with Jordan’s universities for this purpose, stressing that the JSO aims to build “safe
” environmental stations, which are unaffected by activity on the earth’s surface , adding that univerities achieve this goal.
Furthermore, he noted the agreements contribute to provide students with the JSO’s services and information and serve researchers on their studies as the only entity in the Kingdom that provides this service.
To date, the number of the Kingdom’s seismic monitoring stations reached 23.
Source: Jordan News Agency
