Brandvlei, a small town in Northern Cape, was hit by a tremor on Sunday morning.
Residents in areas as far as Cape Town and Namibia reported feeling the earth shake.
Brandvlei tremor had magnitude of 5.3
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) agency, the earth tremor had a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter Scale.
It also said the epicentre of the earthquake was 100km west of Brandvlei and was at a depth of 10km below the earth’s surface.
Reactions on social media
People immediately took to social media after feeling the earth tremor
One Cape Town resident recounted her fear after waking up to her bed shaking.
Another person in Cape Town said the tremor just added to the “weird” summer conditions so far.
Someone even joked that their couch felt like a massage chair.
Johannesburg tremor
It comes days after a tremor was felt in parts of Johannesburg on Tuesday night.
“Earth tremor experienced in most parts of the City of Joburg,” Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi said at the time.
He added that no serious injuries or major damage had been reported.
Council for Geoscience refutes earthquake report
On 11 December, South Africa’s Council for Geoscience released a statement dismissing claims made in an article by ‘Earthquake News Everyday’.
The article said earthquakes with magnitudes between 6 and 8 would be felt in regions of the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and surrounding countries, including South Africa, during December.
“As it stands, scientists cannot predict the exact time, location, and magnitude of individual earthquakes with high accuracy as claimed in those articles. Earthquake forecasting, which estimates the probability of earthquakes occurring in a region over a period of time, is possible, but it is not precise,” said the Council for Geoscience’s Dr Eldridge Kgaswane.
He added that the prediction was not based on any scientifically recognised earthquake forecasting method.
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