‘Did that really happen?’ Best reactions to Joburg’s earthquake

Johannesburg residents had a rude awakening on Friday morning after a 3.6 magnitude earthquake was felt in parts of the city.

According to Earthquake Monitor, the tremor took place at 06.34am in Katlehong, east of Johannesburg. The hypocentre depth was 10km and its magnitude measured 3.6 on the Richter scale.

Areas that felt the tremor the most include Benoni, Alberton, Boksburg and Germiston in the Ekurhuleni municipality, and the south of Johannesburg.

READ NEXT: Tremor: 3.6 magnitude quake rattles Johannesburg on Friday

Many people headed over to Twitter to share their experiences of the earthquake and how their morning routines were shaken up.

There was also a funny theory that the earthquake was in reaction to swimmer Tatjana Schoemaker winning gold in the 200m breaststroke final at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 24-year-old breaststroke specialist broke an eight-year world record by touching the wall in 2:18.95 over the longer distance, breaking the 2:19.11 record which had been set by Rikke Møller Pedersen of Denmark at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona.

Twitter reacts to earthquake

Sanele Mntambo tweeted: “So this morning I was in the bathroom when the house started to shake and I said to myself ‘there’s an airplane that just crushed [sic] in my neighbourhood’. These are the effects of watching air crash investigations.”

This isn’t the first time earth tremors occured in the country, and they happen more often than we think.

According to Volcano Discovery, more than 40 earthquakes were recorded in South Africa this month, including a 4.2 magnitude quake southeast of Springbok in the Northern Cape.

There were two quakes of magnitude 8.2 and magnitude 6.1 respectively over the last 24 hours worldwide, as well as 12 quakes between 5.0 and 6.0 magnitude, and 65 quakes between 4.0 and 5.0 magnitude.

The biggest earthquake this week was in Alaska, in the United States. Tsunami warnings were issued for South Alaska, the Alaskan Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands after a powerful 8.2 earthquake on Thursday.

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