Johannesburg rattled by Klerksdorp and Botswana earthquakes

Update, 9.34pm SAST: How mighty was that Botswana quake? It seems that even those along Durban’s northern and southern coastlines felt tremors tonight.

Durban is over 1100km away from the earthquake’s approximate epicentre.

Felt it in North Beach, Durban #tremor https://t.co/h7sT9UtNeo

— Vibhav Ramcharan (@VibhavRamcharan) April 3, 2017

Everybody in Durban South Beach are standing at the streets bacause of the #tremor that happened few minutes ago 😔😔😭

— Bongekile Ntinganti (@ItsMe_Bongie) April 3, 2017

1. #Tremor Short break in Durban but too afraid to sleep now. Can still feel that hectic tremor. We grabbed cellphones and hit fire escape.

— DeviSankareeGovender (@Devi_HQ) April 3, 2017

Original article: The African earth, especially the earth around South African neighbour Botswana, is rather grumpy today.

Early Monday morning, an earth tremor registering 4.6 magnitude struck near Klerksdorp, North West. According to reports, people as far afield as Pretoria and Johannesburg felt the shakes. The Council for Geoscience has since labeled the tremor as relatively weak, which is apt considering what happened later in the day.

Around 7.40pm SAST, a M6.8 earthquake struck 132km west of Moijabana, south eastern Botswana, and 250km north-northwest of the country’s capital Gaborone.

🇧🇼 Tonight in #Botswana #Earthquake M 6.8, 03/04 14:40, depth: 10 Km, #earthquake #emsc pic.twitter.com/u6Bzt3tTU1

— Botswana (@Botswana) April 3, 2017

For the second time in less than 24 hours, Johannesburg was shaking. And people took to Twitter to find out what on earth was going on.

VIDEO: Tremor felt across SA … and eNCA’s studio pic.twitter.com/iwMncV75zW

— eNCA (@eNCA) April 3, 2017

The hashtags #jhbtremor and simply #tremor soon began trending in the city and across South Africa, with people suggesting that the quake was retribution for the South African government’s weekend antics.

Keep Calm ! Cosatu are marching against Junk status ! #JunkStatus #JHBTremor

— Vìçrí0 (@Vicari0) April 3, 2017

Who just felt the Rand falling? #Tremor #JHBtremor #earthtremor #earthquake

— Hilde Cronje (@Just_Hilde_) April 3, 2017

So obviously the world is ending #junkstatus #JHBtremor

— Kira McDonald (@kiralittlemac) April 3, 2017

The look you gave the person sitting next to you when the tremor started. #JHBTremor pic.twitter.com/fVXArhnP7w

— LUSKY NKOHLA (@LuskyDJ) April 3, 2017

My picture frame legit fell over #iwillrebuild #tremor #JHBtremor pic.twitter.com/Fmqe5hBgDt

— Tashmi Rambaran (@NeferRoyaan) April 3, 2017

#Botswana #Tremors JHB CBD streets are filled. We ran out so fast pic.twitter.com/chhLX9xAZn

— Constantino Saohatse (@Timberland_Tino) April 3, 2017

Tremors were felt as far east as Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, as far west as Maun, northern Botswana and as far south as the Vaal Dam.

Today’s Botswana tremor is the strongest earthquake to strike mainland Africa in over a decade

#Botswana also began trending around 9pm SAST. And rightly so. According to seismologist Stephen Hicks, the quake is the largest to hit mainland Africa since 2006. It’s also Botswana’s strongest ever earthquake.

#Botswana #earthquake preliminary epicentre location *seems* to fortunately indicate that it occurred in a relatively remote location pic.twitter.com/qPsFoszL2e

— Stephen Hicks (@seismo_steve) April 3, 2017

On a serious note… Our brothers & sisters in #Botswana, we hope you are all safe & well after that #Earthquake#PleaseBeSafe🙏🏾

— Jerry Elago🇳🇦 (@JerryElago) April 3, 2017

No injuries have been reported in Gauteng as a result of the quake. There’s no word yet from authorities in Botswana.

@CityofJoburgEMS No injuries or damages to the building have been reported at this stage,our Disaster Management officials are on site

— Robert Mulaudzi (@RobertMulaudzi) April 3, 2017

This is a developing story…

Feature image: USGS