Earthquake hits Windhoek & Surrounds

A rumble and a shake at approximately 11 pm on Tuesday evening alerted a number of Windhoek residents to an earthquake taking place in their midst. 

“It was a rumble … it was not faint. I was lying in bed, getting ready to sleep. Suddenly I heard a faint rumble that got louder and all of a sudden my cupboards starting shaking. I immediately assumed it was an earthquake, it couldn’t have been anything else”, a Windhoek resident said. 

According to officials at the Geological Survey Department the earthquake which literally shook some residents awake, measured 4.5 on the Richer scale. The epicenter of the earthquake was positioned around 15 kilometres south-west of Windhoek. 

According to reports, the main earthquake tremor was recorded at two stations of the department, Windhoek and Aus, and the aftershocks – about 15 minutes later – were recorded at three stations spread far apart, namely Windhoek, Kamanjab in the north-west of the country, and Aus in the south of Namibia. 

Dr Nortin Titus, chief geophysicist, noted that the earthquake was not abnormal, as the areas where it took place are based on fault lines prone to activity such as earthquakes.