Tremor: No underground shifting
Twitter alive with commentary moments after a tremor was felt throughout Johannesburg.
Other news sources reported that the tremor reached a magnitude of 4 on the Richter scale.
The scale is used to assign a single number to quantify the energy released during an earthquake, or in the Johannesburg case, what is best described as a tremor, lasting little over 6 seconds.
The Record later approached André du Plessis that manages surface operations for Gold One, a mid-tier mining group that conducts a lot of its work on the West Rand.
“We’ve received no reports of ground shifting underground,” Du Plessis explained.
“In case of an earthquake or tremor, it might either be caused by this shift or have this shift as a result of a quake or tremor.”
It is understood that investigations are being conducted to understand what caused the tremor.
Although Du Plessis didn’t physically feel the tremor when it occurred, he said that tremors may happen a second and even third time consecutively.
Tweets minutes after tremor (18 November, 10.28 am)
With hashtags like ‘earthquake’ and ‘tremor’ trending on twitter it is confirmed that most Johannesburg residents felt an alleged tremor on Monday 18 November at around 10.05am.
Tweets have been streaming in from across Johannesburg, as far as Ormonde and Johannesburg CBD, Auckland Park and Soweto about a supposed tremor.
Journalist Gus Silber asked whether “anyone else felt that tremor in Northcliff just now” and later remarked that it was “fairly minor by Johannesburg standards”.
“I remember growing up in the West Rand where tremors would shake the house for minutes.”
“Minor earth tremors are just a pulse-quickening reminder that Jo’burg is built on unstable ground, honeycombed in the quest for gold.”
“I’m in Allen’s Nek and I felt that,” another twitter user remarked.
Others equate the tremor to result from mine explosions. A resident in Fleurhof told the Record that her bedroom window shattered during the tremor, partially blaming mine explosions.
The Pharos English Dictionary for South Africa explains ‘tremor’ as “a shaking or quivering”, saying about earth tremors that they are “slight earthquakes”.
The last reports of an earthquake was in Westonaria around a year ago, which was reportedly of a 4.7 magnitude and 5 kilometres in depth.
The Record will report on further developments.
See a gallery of the broken window here.
