“Although Malaysia is located on the stable Sunda plate,
pressure on the continent is mounting because the Australian,
Eurasian and Philippine plates around us are moving and pushing
into us. “To relieve this stress, cracks occur on the surface.
As the pressure intensifies, cracks are more frequent and
bigger,” said Azlan, who heads UTM’s Structural Earthquake
Engineering Research. According to Azlan, the major Aceh
earthquake in 2004 had disturbed the surrounding plates. The
plates are moving closer towards the Sumatran fault line and a
shift of a few centimetres towards the west was recorded after
the incident. “We are now closer to the epicentre. In the event
of an earthquake, the pressure will be greater,” he said at a
recent national seminar on earthquakes.