A minor 4.1 magnitude earthquake was felt in Chegutu on Wednesday afternoon, causing weak shaking of buildings in the town and other areas in Mashonaland West province.
The moderate quake occurred about 10km from the ground surface at around 5:27 pm and local and international seismology equipment automatically detected the seismic activity.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Volcanodiscovery.com confirmed picking the earthquake saying it was a low-intensity quake that could have been felt near the epicentre, about 23km from Chegutu town.
The quake was also felt in Kadoma, Chinhoyi, Banket and Norton among other parts of Mashonaland West.
“A moderate magnitude 4.1 earthquake hit 23 km (14 miles) away from Chegutu, Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe, in the afternoon of Wednesday, Mar 20, 2024, at 5:27 pm local time (Africa/Harare GMT +2),” said Volcanodiscovery.com on its website.
“The quake had a very shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles) and was not felt (or at least not reported so).”
The Bulawayo Seismology Centre classified it as a minor event, in which equipment picked automatically and investigations, including inquiries with people near the epicentre, were underway.
“With our equipment, there was a very small event that occurred in the Chegutu area at around the same time. There is what we call automatic picking which is done by equipment without human intervention to refine the data,” said a source from the seismology centre.
A resident, Mr Lucky Chingaite however, said he felt the shaking of the ground on Wednesday morning at around 5 am as he was preparing to go for morning prayer.
“I felt some shaking and noise in the morning as I was preparing to go to our shrine to pray in the morning. This is the second time I felt that way after a similar incident several years back.”
The largest earthquake to be recorded in Zimbabwe occurred at Kariba Dam in 1963 and had a magnitude of 6,3, according to local seismology records.
It was attributed to the impoundment of the dam.
