Rethink on big Sabah quake

Published on: Sunday, January 24, 2021

By: Kan Yaw Chong

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The famous Donkey’s Ears before and after the quake. The violent tremor broke one of the iconic ‘ears’!

THERE is such a thing called “sad truth”. The “sad truth” is, people forget about natural disasters really quickly, according to a study done by Professor David Konisky of the University of Indiana, USA.

One moment people are completely traumatised by extreme weather like severe storms and flooding, the next moment its memory fades.

The same has happened to the big Sabah quake June 5, 2015. People are not thinking about it anymore.

Most, if not all Sabahans, have probably forgotten 18 people were smashed dead in an instant by a massive boulder avalanche down the rock face slopes of Mt Kinabalu when a surprise magnitude 6 earthquake suddenly hit at 7.15am on June 5, 2015.

The disaster gripped the world, especially our regional neighbour Singapore because it killed seven of their Katong primary school pupils, two teachers, one guide on a school holiday field trip, plus a mix of 10 local guides and climbers.

But we don’t hear people talk about the deadly tragedy anymore, much less trying to understand the science of it.

A big snap up after centuries of crustal ‘stretching’

To give readers a quick peep into the underlying science of it, both American Professor Kerry Sieu of Earth Observatory Singapore and local geology Professor Felix Tongkul agree one force at work – “Extension Tectonics” – some kind of crustal stretching which, like anything stretched beyond its ultimate limit… boom, it snaps, followed by a violent release of stored energy which shook Sabah up!

Oversimplification, of course, but we get the point.

But that’s how Prof Kerry Sieu explained it in layman terms that the West coast and East coast landmass of Sabah had actually been stretching apart for centuries without anyone of us knowing, and then – boom – snapped suddenly at a 10km deep epicentre.

It shook Mt Kinabalu with violent vibrations and sent a massive boulder avalanche down the mountain. But five years later we don’t think about it any more.

Until, in our case, Editor-in-Chief James Sarda forwarded and asked me to expand on a Discovery Networks Asia Pacific video revisiting the case, presented by a half-British, half-Sarawakian Iban, Henry Golding.

Big one on June 5, 2015 – when is the next by big one?

Of course, no amount of remembrance or thinking about it can bring back the 18 lives killed.

But since the world of geologists were surprised that such a big one can hit a largely “quake-free” region like Sabah, they rightly wonder why and asked when and where the next big one may hit again with possibly the same or even greater damage.

Discovery commissioned Sabah Quake Special

Fortunately, and a lot of people may not know this but understandably Singapore-based Discovery Networks Asia Pacific commissioned “Sabah Quake Special” soon after the tragedy which saddened a lot of Singaporeans.

Essentially, the Sabah Quake Special was commissioned to return to what DNAP called “ground zero” to “examine” the events and aftermath and also to “evaluate” the likelihood of future earthquakes in the region.

Yes, Discovery is right, people do care about when and where the big one may strike, although the “sad truth” is they may not be thinking enough about it.

Discovery presenter interviews Prof Kerry for insight

So, is Discovery thinking for us publicly instead?

Yes, thankfully. As Charmaine Kwan, Vice President Programming – DNAP – said:

“Discovery continues to deliver topical content about events that have gripped the region. Sabah quakes aims to piece together the latest findings on the tragedy and aims to provide insight into the science of the tragedy.”

There it is, beyond the headline-making human tragedy, what is the science behind this chilling magnitude-6 quake could have happened in a largely earthquake-free part of the world.

The following text is a transcript from Henry Golding’s attempt to investigate why and how the big quake happened, in a special interview with Professor Kerry Sieu, Director of Earth Observatory Singapore.

Images in the video are not particularly sharp nor text particularly complete but it is a good eye opener for more future expansion.

In sequence, Professor Kerry expounds the extension tectonics and hypothesises that crustal stretching across Sabah over centuries, caused sudden snap which shook Mt Kinabalu, unleashing a deadly boulder avalanche. The tragedy killed 18 on June 5, 2015.