4.9 magnitude quake rattles Mozambican province – APA report

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4.9 magnitude quake rattles Mozambican province – APA report

9:04 CAT | 19 Mar 2018

Picture: earthquake.usgs.gov

An earthquake measuring 4.9 magnitude in the Richter scale hit the country’s central Zambezia province and was felt in all the country’s central and northern provinces as well as neighbouring Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe on Saturday ad Sunday. In a statement to APA, Mozambican mining authorities say the phenomenon’s epicentre was Morrumbala district, few minutes after five pm local time on Saturday, with the same phenomenon happening on Sunday morning in Milange district, on the border with Malawi.

There is no report of casualties.

“The earthquake took place 10 kilometres underground and this is a replication of last week’s earthquake of 5.6 in the Richter scale, which occurred in the same region.

In both situations no human or material casualties were reported”, reads the statement which adds that the mining institute is permanently in contact with the administrative authorities of the affected zones to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, residents of the affected zones say the earthquake caused widespread panic.

One such resident who spoke to APA over the phone on Sunday said the earthquake was a show of God’s wrath on the wrongdoings on earth.

earthquake.moz17march — *earthquake.usgs.gov*

“I was resting in bed when I decided to wake up to prepare myself to travel. But suddenly I heard a strange movement of my house’s zinc sheets. I jumped out of bed. I thought it was a windstorm. The earth shook instead. But I think, sometimes, we are to blame. We are catalysts of these phenomena. This is because, for instance, people farm on the mountains, removing stones. I think this makes the earth vulnerable” said Jamal Abdul over the phone from the district of Morrumbala.

Mozambican university teacher, Aristides Macamo, who specialised in Geology blamed successive earthquakes in Milange and elsewhere in the country and in the world on mining and strong pressure put on the underground tectonic plates, which when they get closer to each other cause earthquakes.

Earthquakes are common in Mozambique, where seismic activities are common due to friction between tectonic plates.

Source: APA / earthquake.usgs.gov