This is according to Seismologist at the Council for Geoscience in South Africa, Eldridge Kgaswane, who tells OFM News that normally earthquakes in South Africa are induced by mining, which activates natural faults. However, aside from this, natural earthquakes are rare in South Africa due to the country being located on a stable continental region. He says intense water movements at the Augrabies Falls are the cause of the seismic activity experienced in the Northern Cape.

“You see, the action of water is enough to reactivate these fault structures, especially if they are on the subsurface because water gets trapped in those structures. And then overtime water causes these fault systems to fail. Once there is failure this leads to an earthquake,” explains Kgaswane.

Professor Kgaswane’s sentiments come on the back of three earthquakes being reported in the Northern Cape in May, June and July respectively.

In late May, a seismic event with a 2.2-magnitude was reported in Postmasburg, whilst the 4,1 magnitude earthquake that hit Namibia’s Karas region was felt by residents in parts of the Northern Cape too – specifically near the Augrabies Falls. Retired cop, Vataleni Fanuel Kakuiyu, told OFM News he felt the tremors inside his Keimoes home with no real damage reported on his side.

READ: Moderate earthquake hits Northern Cape

The depth of the seismic event has been recorded as being 10 kms. The third seismic event with a magnitude of 4,2 was reported in Springbok and surrounding areas in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 6 July 2021.

According to the Council for Geoscience in South Africa, the moderate earthquake occurred 42 kms away from Springbok at 01:39 am, but the tremors could be felt by residents in the town. According to Volcano Discovery “the quake hit at a shallow depth of 10 km beneath the epicenter near Springbok. Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as a light vibration in the area of the epicentre”.

READ: Elsewhere in Central South Africa, the mining city of Welkom recently reported an earthquake 

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