Residents talk about the earthquake
The epicentre was six kilometres east of Orkney, which is a mining town in the North West - around 180km from Johannesburg
“I felt the tremors too, but it was just for a few seconds. I thought I was imagining things when flowers inside the house started moving.
It’s kind of weird, though, to know that earthquakes can happen in SA!”
“Het ek my nou verbeel of het die aarde beweeg?” Gwenie van Niekerk.
Did you feel the quake? Let us know.
According to the United States Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program website, the earthquake measured 5.3 on the Richter Scale at a depth of 10km and happened at 12:22.34pm.
The epicentre was six kilometres east of Orkney, which is a mining town in the North West – around 180km from Johannesburg.
One death has been confirmed.
So how do we measure how strong a quake is?
The Richter magnitude scale (also known as the Richter scale) assigns a magnitude number to quantify the energy released by an earthquake. As measured with a seismometer, an earthquake that registers 5.0 on the Richter scale has a shaking amplitude 10 times greater than that of an earthquake that registered 4.0, and thus corresponds to a release of energy 31.6 times greater than that released by the lesser earthquake.
The quake that hit Orkney in the last hour measured over 5 on the Richter scale and has been felt throughout the country, including Ladysmith!
