LAGOS, Dec. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The undersea quake off the coast of Indonesia could happen in Nigeria as the country's western boundary with Cameroon is an active volcanic region capable of causing tsunamis, local media reported Wednesday.

    This Day quoted one Nigerian prominent expert as saying that the government must be on the alert and immediately commence studies and other measures to confront the danger that may arise from volcanic eruption.

    "Nigeria should be prepared. Though it is not possible to predict when such disasters will take place, there is need to prepare for evacuation," Olusola Dublin-Green, assistant director of the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), said in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.

    She explained that there are fracture zones in deepwater Gulf of Guinea along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. "One of which is active and could sack the Niger Delta and Lagos" in the southern part of the country, she added.

    According to her, the fracture zones include Romanche (western),Chain (western flank), Charcot (more of the Niger Delta) and Cameroon FZ (eastern boundary of Nigeria), which the expert said, was active.

    She urged the government to swing into action immediately through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

    "Geographically, the Atlantic is not that active," she said, but "it does not mean that something like that cannot happen here because of the plate", she said, citing the Lake Chad gaseous emission as an example.

    It is believed that the larger implication of any tsunami in the Nigerian-Cameroon border is the possible havoc it wrecks across the west African sub-region and can put about 100 million people in danger on that west African plate.

    About six other west African nations like Benin, Cameroon, Togo,Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso may record serious geographical and economic dislocation.

    While expressing fear of possible occurrence in Nigeria, Dublin-Green said Nigeria may not experience the eruption as the Atlantic Ocean has no historical record of such natural disaster.

    The earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale, triggered devastating tsunamis, or tidal waves, in south and southeast Asia. About 60,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia have been killed in the disaster.

Enditem