#DurbanTremor shakes coastal belt

Published Feb 6, 2016

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Durban - The earth tremor that shook the KwaZulu-Natal coastal regions on Saturday morning is unlikely to be greater than magnitude 3.0, the Council for Geoscience said on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, we can only confirm the location and magnitude on Monday,” Council for Geosciences seismologist Michelle Grobbelaar told ANA.

“But the earthquake seems to be located in the KZN region and was felt quite widely in the province. It occurred at 11.30 this morning [Saturday] and from the reports I have received, it is unlikely to be greater than magnitude 3.0, but this needs to be confirmed,” she said.

Grobbelaar said there had been earthquakes in the province before – the earliest on the council’s records was in 1932 off the coast at St Lucia – “so one shouldn’t be concerned but just aware of how to react to such events”.

Read: Many left shaken after #DurbanTremor

Thousands of people took to social media websites Facebook and Twitter, reporting they had felt the tremor from as far south as Margate up to Richards Bay in the north, and as far inland as Pietermaritzburg.

There were no immediate reports of any damage from the tremor, which had lasted for a few seconds.

KwaZulu-Natal emergency medical service (EMS) spokesman Robert McKenzie said that according to their information the tremor stretched from Stanger down to Port Shepstone and inland to Pietermaritzburg.

African News Agency

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