Cape Town rattled by mild earthquake, CGS confirms

The Council for Geoscience (CGS) has confirmed that a mild earthquake occurred in Cape Town.

The CGS which monitors seismic wave activities throughout the country said the quake struck late Wednesday afternoon just before 6pm.

There were no reports of any injuries or damages to buildings.

Cape Town quake

CGS spokesperson Mahlatse Mononela said: “The analysis results show that the earthquake registered a local magnitude of approximately 1.4, as recorded by the South African Seismograph Network (SANSN). The epicentre was located along the Diepriver in close proximity to Milnerton Rural area.

“The public is encouraged to record their experiences using the available online questionnaire.”

This isn’t Cape Town’s first earthquake after two earth tremors were recorded in September 2020. The strongest tremor rattled Tulbagh on 29 September 1969, killing 12 people.

The 6.3-magnitude quake was felt throughout the towns of Ceres, Tulbagh, Wolseley and Prince Alfred Hamlet with significant damage in Porterville and Worcester and the villages of Gouda, Saron and Hermon.

There was also a  series of aftershocks nearly six months after the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale.

ALSO READ: 2.5 magnitude earthquake rattles parts of Joburg and West Rand

Gauteng quakes

Meanwhile, Gauteng has seen its fair share of earthquakes recently with the last one recorded in January this year.

The earthquake registered a local magnitude of approximately 2.5 as recorded by SANSN with the epicentre located south of Johannesburg, approximately 3km north of Harmony Doornkop Gold Mine.

On 11 June 2023, South Africans were awoken by a powerful 4.4 magnitude earthquake, which was felt across large parts of Gauteng.

The quake hit the south of Boksburg at about 2.38am, causing homes and buildings to shake.

Just two weeks later, on 29 June, Johannesburg residents were shaken awake by a 2.9 magnitude quake originating in Soweto.

The big one

With a number of tremors hitting South Africa, the head of Archaeology and Geography at Wits University, Professor Gillian Drennan, told The Citizen last year that it was very difficult to predict if the country will experience a major earthquake with catastrophic consequences.

“We can’t predict. There are multiple reasons for an earthquake. Are we going to see a huge one like the one that destroyed half of Japan? We are not on a plate boundary so we are not going to see that kind of activity,” Drennan said.

ALSO READ: Soweto earthquake a result of earth ‘readjusting itself’ − expert