The quake‚ which was initially measured at between 6.3 and 6.5 on the Richter Scale‚ struck just before 8pm‚ about 250km away from the capital Gaborone.
It was felt across Limpopo‚ Mpumalanga‚ North West and large parts of Gauteng‚ shaking buildings. Suburbs in Johannesburg where the tremor was felt included Illovo‚ Rosebank‚ Centurion‚ Roodepoort‚ Boksburg and Pretoria.
TMG Digital reported that an earth tremor measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale had occurred earlier in the day in Krugersdorp on the West Rand of Gauteng in the mining town of Stilfontein. That epicentre was 2km underground.
Ian Saunders‚ a seismologist at the Council for Geoscience‚ said Monday evening’s quake was a “serious” one.
“That is a big magnitude. We are currently assembling teams to be dispatched to Botswana. There are already teams heading to the earthquake zone from earlier in the day.”
