The South African Council for Geosciences recorded a Magnitude 3.4 to the northwest of the city of Cape Town in Western Cape Province, slightly before 0.30 am local time on Tuesday 17 November 2020 (slighly before 10.30 pm on Monday 16 November 2020 GMT). There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, though many people reported feeling it in the Cape Town area.
Earthquakes of any size are relatively rare in South Africa and because of this rarity it is hard to make precise judgements about the cause of quakes in South Africa, due to a paucity of data. Northwestern South Africa is close the southern end of the Great Rift Valley exits the continent and passes out under the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. The Great Rift Valley is slowly splitting the African Plate in two allow a line from the Red Sea through Ethiopia, and which includes the great lakes and volcanoes of east-central Africa. This has the potential to open into a new ocean over the next few tens of millions of years, splitting Africa into two new, smaller, continents; Nubia to the west and Somalia to the east. However, this is a long way from Cape Town, and while Earthquakes are occasionally recorded in the Western Cape, the reason for these are not entirely clear.
Witness statements can help geologists to understand Earthquakes and the geological processes that cause them; if you felt an Earthquake in South Africa you can report it to the South African Council for Geoscience here.
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