A second tremor was felt in parts of Gauteng and at around 19h40 on Monday evening (3 April).<\/p>\n
People took to social media to report feeling the tremor in numerous areas around Gauteng. The tremor lasted for several seconds and according to early reports was recorded at a 5.2 magnitude.<\/p>\n
Preliminary data reported a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Botswana recorded at around the same time at depth of 10km, which led to tremors reported in South Africa.<\/p>\n
It follows an earth tremor which hit parts of Gauteng and the North West earlier on Monday morning, which was recorded at 4.6 magnitude, the Council for Geoscience (CGS) said..<\/p>\n
The tremor, which was 2km deep, was recorded around 05:08 on Monday. It originated near a gold mining area in Klerksdorp, in the North West.<\/p>\n
The CGS’s Michelle Grobbelaar told News24 that in 2005 and 2014, the same region had experienced magnitude 5.3 and 5.5 earthquakes respectively.<\/p>\n
“This earthquake was smaller than them and thus not intense,” she said.<\/p>\n
Grobbelaar said that SA was a low-to-moderate seismically active region, which meant that it generally experienced a number of small earthquakes, and occasional larger ones.<\/p>\n
“Through our monitoring of the seismicity with the national seismograph network, we have mapped the seismicity of the country and it is evident that more than 80% of the seismicity within the country is located in and around the mining regions.”<\/p>\n
Research<\/strong><\/p>\n She said that South Africa’s largest earthquake had been in the Ceres\/Tulbagh region in 1969.<\/p>\n Residents in and around Johannesburg turned to social media to share news of apparent earth tremors at the weekend.<\/p>\n Residents in Soweto and Westdene told News24 on Saturday night that their homes had shaken briefly. Others reported that they felt a second tremor after the first one.<\/p>\n In the early hours of Monday morning, residents of Klerksdorp and surrounding towns were also woken by an earth tremor.<\/p>\n Grobbelaar said the CGS was planning to send a team to the area to interview residents about the tremor as part of the council’s research.<\/p>\n “This information is very useful to us,” she said.<\/p>\n With News24<\/a><\/p>\n
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