Earth tremor felt in Cape Town

The Council for Geoscience (CGS) recorded a seismic event in Brandvlei, Northern Cape early on Sunday morning, with shaking reported in parts of Cape Town, Paarl, Ceres and Worcester.

According to the council, the tremor recorded a magnitude of 5.26 and occurred at 2.51am. No reports of injuries or damages have been reported.

Earlier this month Earthquake News Everyday published an article predicting an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 to 8.0 will hit regions between December 5 and 20 in the areas of the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean and surrounding countries, including South Africa.

However, the council dismissed the report and said while the regions are seismically active, predicting specific magnitudes and exact locations within a short timeframe (15 to 20 days) is not scientifically plausible.

Chief CGS scientist Dr Eldridge Kgaswane said at the time: “ Scientists cannot predict the exact time, location and magnitude of individual earthquakes with high accuracy, as claimed in the article. Earthquake forecasting, which estimates the probability of earthquakes occurring in a region over a period of time, is possible but it is not precise.”

TimesLIVE