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South shaken by earth tremors

Earth tremors hit the southern districts of Malawi—mainly Blantyre, Zomba, Phalombe and Mulanje—in the late evening hours of Tuesday, officials from the Geological Survey Department have confirmed.

Director of Geological Survey in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Jalf Salima, in an interview on Wednesday, said the scale of the tremor was recorded at a magnitude of 4.1 on the Ritcher scale.tremor

He said the focus of the tremor is Zambezia Province in Mozambique and its depth is located at 10 kilometres.

Said Salima: So far no damages in terms of property or loss of life have been recorded by the department.”

Commenting on increasing cases of earth tremors, Salima said Malawi and most countries located in the East African Rift Valley have been experiencing tremors mainly of collision of faults.

“The movement of the rocks makes the faults to collide into one another, thereby causing earth tremors in the process,” he said.

Salima dismissed fears that the increased cases might be signalling something big is about to happen in the country, saying Malawi receives low to medium magnitude.

The country has experienced several earth tremors in the past 12 months. The recent ones were experienced in the Central Region two weeks ago; in Blantyre in June this year and in the southern districts of Zomba, Machinga, Phalombe, Blantyre and the northern city of Mzuzu in October last year.

According to the first hazards and vulnerability Atlas that was launched last Tuesday in Lilongwe, the country has several districts with a higher vulnerability level and prone to hazards such as floods, droughts, diseases and earthquakes.

The districts at a higher risk include Nsanje, Chikwawa, Salima, Nkhata Bay, Lilongwe, Dedza, Karonga, Kasungu and Rumphi.

 

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