MADINAH: The little known town of Al-Ais and its surrounding villages in northwestern Saudi Arabia have shot to fame overnight receiving 600,000 Google hits following reports of a potential earthquake or volcanic eruption in the region.
Members of the public have been flocking to the Internet to find information about the Saudi towns and villages that were evacuated after being rocked by mild tremors over several weeks. The evacuations were carried out as a precautionary measure.
An earthquake or volcano eruption in Saudi Arabia, a leading energy supplier, has the potential to send fuel prices surging, worsening the global economy, which is already reeling under a severe recession.
The epicenter of the tremors, Harrat Al-Shaqah (also known as Harrat Al-Lunayyir), is an extinct volcano, which recently showed signs of coming alive. Several rifts, some of them measuring up to 900 meters in length, have appeared on Harrat Al-Shaqah.
Local residents, who became worried as the area has been experiencing frequent tremors since mid-April, started panicking on Sunday when the tremors became more intense.
Subsequently, the Civil Defense ordered the evacuation of residents of settlements within a 40 km radius of the epicenter and have set up camps to house them.Some 800 people have already been evacuated from the Al-Qarasa, Al-Hadama and Al-Amid districts and put in hotels or apartment blocks in Yanbu and Madinah.
The online traffic not only included members of the public from other regions of the Kingdom, but also evacuees who were put up in relief camps.
Several television channels and newspapers sent reporters and camera crew to cover developments in the region. The media also began publishing sensational reports, particularly since Tuesday, when a tremor measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale was recorded. This received international media attention with online bloggers discussing the issue.
The situation in Al-Ais also featured in Friday sermons across the Kingdom last week.
Meanwhile, the Education Department in Yanbu has taken steps to temporarily enroll some 500 children evacuated from the Al-Ais area in schools in the city, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.
