A Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) geologist has warned that more tremors will be felt in the Ranau district in the coming weeks or months.

Felix Tongkul said the tremors, measuring less than 4.0 on the Richter scale, are unlikely to cause infrastructural damage but may cause landslides in mountainous areas.

"According to the records on the frequency of tremors, we are still in the 'active phase'.

"This means the tremors will continue for several more weeks or months and this condition is quite unusual," he said, according to Bernama.

Tongkul said Mount Kinabalu, which is situated in Ranau, had been "scarred" following the major earthquake on June 5.

"The depth of the earthquake focus was between nine and 33 kilometres. The depth of the tremors increased towards the west of the mountain towards Tuaran district.

"This means that the fault line which caused the main earthquake on June 5 was very deep, reaching more than 33 kilometres and a width of 20 kilometres," he explained.

No need to panic

Felix said the fault was under the granitic body of Mount Kinabalu, such as the "large button mushroom" the size of over 3,000 cubic kilometres floating on the surface of the earth's crust.

"This means that the Mount Kinabalu granitic body was 'cut off' at its feet. This caused the mountain area to become less stable and it needs time to settle down.

"The main fault and other faults will continue to move and can result in aftershocks if their movement is hindered," he said.

Despite this, Tongkul said residents in Ranau should not be overly worried, as the tremors were weak and were a common occurance in Japan, Taiwan, Philippines and Indonesia.

"In fact, there are about 50,000 tremors with a magnitude of less than 4.0 on the Richter scale each year throughout the world," he added.