The National Centre of Meteorology detected the localized offshore tremor late Friday, confirming no injuries or structural damage.
ABU DHABI — October 17, 2026 : A minor earthquake measuring 1.6 on the Richter scale struck waters off Dibba Al Fujairah late Friday night, recorded by the UAE’s National Seismic Network with no reports of casualties or damage.
The tremor occurred off the UAE’s eastern coastline at 9:58 p.m. local time on Friday, October 16, according to the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM).
Specialized monitoring stations pinpointed the localized event at a shallow focal depth of roughly 5 kilometers beneath the seabed. Given the low intensity, only a very limited number of residents along nearby coastal areas may have noticed slight ground movement, while the broader public experienced no disruption.
Municipal authorities and emergency services in Fujairah confirmed that the event did not disrupt utility networks, port operations, or daily civilian transit. No distress calls were logged following the detection.
Minor seismic activity is an occasional occurrence along the eastern rim of the Arabian Peninsula, primarily driven by regional tectonic boundary interactions across the Gulf of Oman and adjacent fault systems. UAE monitoring bodies maintain continuous real-time seismic observation across the country, advising the public to rely exclusively on official state channels and verified bulletins for disaster mitigation updates.
