GCN speaks to experts: Earthquake shakes the country
Tremors may continue after 5.5 magnitude earthquake.
On Tuesday August 5, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre located in Orkney, in the North West, hit parts of South Africa.
The earthquake took place in an area with a high concentration of deep gold mines.
The tremor caused widespread concern in the North West mining area and led to evacuations in large parts of the country.
In Germiston, people throughout the city felt the tremor and many took to social media platforms to talk about it.
“It occurred in the Stilfontein, Klerksdorp and Orkney region (in the North West) and it was felt as far as the Eastern Cape,” said the Council for Geoscience’s (CGS) Michelle Grobbelaar.
She said aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 1 to 2.5 have occurred and are expected to continue in the coming days.
The CGS will continue to monitor the seismicity in this area and the entire South Africa.
Denver Birch, a seismologist at CGS said: “The cause is due to an accumulation of stress in the earth’s crust, to which mining activities in the area may have contributed over a long period of time.
“This is, however, very difficult to prove.”
The GCN received a large number of comments from the community, regarding the tremor, which lasted a few minutes.
Some of the comments received were:
- Rosa van Zweel: “Ons is van Klopperpark nadat dit gebeur het haak my kleindogter van vyf jaar af en se ouma ons het Jesus kwaad gemaak nou maak Hy ons bang. Dit was verskriklik my hele huis en die stoel waarop ek sit het geruk ek het gedink dis ‘n aardbewing of meer ‘n ontploffing want ons is naby Modderfontein waar hul plofstof maak.”
- Marcel Amarachukwu Okafor: “I felt it while I was at the Germiston Police Station and I thought that it was dynamite which is often used by the miners and construction companies.”
- Lisa Marie Gaybba: “5.3 magnitude tremor originating from Orkney. Wow that was shaky in Albemarle.”
- Ishmael Showa: “Could not believe it seeing my computer flat screen shaking. At first I thought it was my neighbour getting down to some action — but later realised it was serious.”
- Willamarie Erasmus: “Ek was alleen by die huis in Primrose en het gesit en kyk hoe my rekenaar en drukker op die tafel rondskud. Was rerig scary.”
- Menelisi Dambuza: “I only heard the vibration of the windows, I guess it didn’t hit much in Germiston South.”
- Joan Potgieter Bousfield: “Solheim, we ran outside, our house was shaking so bad.”
- Heather Baiocchi: “At first we assumed it was a rock fall but it went on too long for that. My cousin in Durban felt it.”
- Lize du Bruyn: “Germiston op die agste vloer, gevoel of gebou in mekaar wil tuimel.”
- Tarryn Holliday: “Lasted probably 30 to 40 seconds here in Carlswald, Midrand. It was the feeling of a vibrating cellphone. Except everything was vibrating. I stay in a loft apartment and my top window felt like it was going to be pushed in almost, for a second I had a feeling like I need to get out the building. I put my palm on our window and it felt like a cellphone vibrating the whole side of my house. I felt like I could almost hear plaster dust rattling and my blinds on the top loft window. Hectic. Just felt shock and confusion at first.”
- Stephan Joubert: “It felt as if it shook for a long time. I stay on the second floor of an apartment building and it kind of felt strange, a light tingly vibration.”
- Sydney Smith: “Wow that was a long earth tremor.”
