Thabisa Ndzindzwa
In the early hours of Sunday morning some residents in Gauteng were awakened by powerful tremors that hit parts of the province.
The 5.0 magnitude earthquake caused homes and buildings to shake.
The regional weather services in Gauteng Weather initially shared the details of the earthquake on their social media platforms.
“Estimated 4.5-magnitude tremor with epicentre near Boksburg, felt across large parts of Gauteng at 02:38am,”cTwitted the Gauteng Weather.
The epicentre was believed to be around Alberton and Boksburg in East Rand.
Automated and preliminary information recorded by the Council of Geoscience indicated a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in East Rand, Gauteng during the early hours of Sunday.
However, the SA National Seismograph Network believed the Sunday Morning tremor was significantly more intense than other recent events.
There are no reports of any damage and injured people due to the tremors.
The earthquake is believed to have lasted a few seconds, and was felt in regions as far as Pretoria and other provinces.
Residents took to social media expressing their feelings about the earthquake, where one user tweeted describing the tremor as a “moving train”.
This was not the first quake this year, in March, the Free State was also hit by earth tremors but did not cause any damages.
The Council for Geoscience (CGS) also confirmed that the earthquake hit about 60 km South of Bloemfontein.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) also recorded the Gauteng earthquake saying it had a preliminary magnitude of 5.0.
