No reports of damage after KZN tremor

The earthquake that rattled coastal KwaZulu-Natal this weekend measured 3.8 on the Richter scale.

Durban - The earthquake that shook KwaZulu-Natal’s coastal regions on Saturday measured 3.8 on the Richter scale, according to the Council for Geoscience.

“We recorded it as a magnitude 3.8 off the coast of Umhlanga, which agrees with the reports we received of how people experienced the event,” Council for Geoscience seismologist Michelle Grobbelaar said on Sunday.

Initial readings indicated that the quake was located at a depth of 5km.

“By the time that the seismic waves reached the shore, a lot of the intensity had dissipated and that is why their experience was similar to the intensity of a magnitude-three earthquake inland,” she said.

The quake, which happened on Saturday at 11.30am, had social media abuzz with thousands of people taking to websites such as Facebook and Twitter, reporting they had felt the quake from as far south as Margate up to Richard’s Bay in the north, and as far inland as Pietermaritzburg.

There were no reports of any damage caused by the tremor, which lasted a few seconds.

ANA