A 3.5-magnitude earthquake was recorded in Abu Dhabi's Al Sila in the early hours of Friday morning, in the second seismic event to hit the Emirates this week.

The tremor in the small town − located about 350km west of Abu Dhabi city in Al Dhafra region − was 'slightly felt' by residents, the National Centre of Meteorology said.

The weather centre added that the incident, which was reported at 12.03am on Friday at a depth of 3km, had no significant impact.

The Richter scale - used to measure the strength of earthquakes - describes quakes of between 3-0 to 3.9 as slight, which are often felt but rarely cause damage.

It comes after a 2.0-magnitude earthquake was recorded on the UAE's east coast on Tuesday evening.

The seismic event was detected in the Sharjah town of Khor Fakkan at 8.35pm. Residents in the area mildly felt it.

Seismic activity is monitored by the NCM in the UAE to provide early warnings and to ensure safety.

Earthquakes remain relatively rare in the country, but tremors related to quakes elsewhere in the region – particularly from Iran – are more common.

But why does the UAE experience earthquakes?

Peter Styles, professor emeritus of applied and environmental geophysics at Keele University in the UK, said the UAE lies on a "plate boundary" - where the Arabian Plate moves northeastward and collides with the much larger Indian Plate which slowly pushes Arabia from Africa. "This creates a lot of seismicity to the north of UAE in Iran," he said.

This boundary is known as the "Owen fracture zone" where seismic activity varies, "sparing" the UAE of much of the activity of the major plates.

"However, [the UAE] does have ancient faults from much older geological times and movements," he said. "The stress of the plate movements act on the UAE and sometimes is sufficient to cause readjustments with relatively low seismic activity which is what we are seeing at the minute," he said.

"This stress will be dissipated and probably settle down soon - can be months - but can give a range of magnitudes".

The expert said such incidents are "unlikely to be devastating but can be unsettling especially when experienced in multi-storey buildings which make the experience more unnerving."

Mr Styles said it was impossible to say for certain whether slightly larger events may occur but this was "not likely".

But the small tremors can help geologists and engineers develop models of ground behaviour which can be used in planning and construction to ensure buildings can withstand any earthquakes.

"Long term observation can lead to predictive models being constructed which make future infrastructure much better designed for probabilistic seismicity."