Council of Geoscience confirm ‘terrifying’ quake measured around 4.4 in Ekurhuleni.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

The Council of GeoScience (CGS) confirmed that an earthquake occurred on Sunday morning at around 2:38, registered at a local magnitude of approximately at 4.4 as recorded by South African National Seismograph Network (SANSN).

The epicentre was located in the Boksburg area few kilometres outside East Rand Propriety Mine (ERPM) in the East Rand.

The earthquake which lasted for a few seconds was felt as far as Pretoria and even other provinces across the country.

Regional weather service Gauteng Weather initially shared the details of the earthquake on social media platform Twitter.

The epicentre was believed to be near Alberton or Boksburg on the East Rand.

“Estimated 4.5-magnitude tremor with epicentre near Boksburg, felt across large parts of Gauteng at 02:38am,” it tweeted.

However, some estimates suggested the relatively long earthquake was as high as 5.0 magnitude.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced the incident saying the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 and struck about 10 kilometers below the surface.

There have been no reported injuries or fatalities related to the Sunday quake so far.

Ekurhuleni EMS spokesperson, William Ntladi said, “So far we have not received any major incidents that we can announce and say we have attended in terms of the earthquake. However, there was a building that suffered minimal damage in Bedfordview, whereby a pub the ceiling collapsed and we responded there and only to find there was no injuries or casualties. It was only the ceiling that definitely collapsed.”

One social media user said it felt like being in a “moving train” while others reported their walls shaking, while a Boksburg resident said she “woke up to dust.”

In August 2014, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit a gold mining town near Johannesburg.

The last major quake to hit South Africa was a 6.3-magnitude tremor that struck the Western Cape province in 1969.

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