The United States Geological Survey
recorded a Magnitude 3.6 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km roughly 12 km
in South-east District,
Botswana, roughly 12 to the southeast of the city of Gaborone, slightly before 12.45 pm local time (slightly before 10.45 am GMT) on Sunday 20 December 2020. A quake of this size is not normally large enough to present any threat to Human life or property, but people have reported feeling in locally.
Earthquakes are rare in Southern Africa, making this one of the largest
Earthquakes ever recorded in the country. Because of this rarity it is
hard to make precise judgements about the
cause of quakes in the region, due to a paucity of data. Botswana is
close the southern end of the Great Rift Valley exits
the continent and passes out under the Indian Ocean. 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.
Movement on the African Rift Valley, with associated volcanoes. Rob Gamesby/Cool Geography.
See also...
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