EarthQuakes - South African mega swarm?

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1 Day, Magnitude 2.5+Updated: 2013-05-16 06:23:2740 earthquakes



These just happened very quickly, keeping an eye out here.

5.7 Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge 2013-05-16 01:57:03-04:00 12.8 km deep
5.0 South of Africa 2013-05-16 01:42:51-04:00 16.5 km deep
5.0 Southwest of Africa 2013-05-16 01:19:40-04:00 10.0 km deep
5.3 South of Africa 2013-05-15 23:18:24-04:00 15.8 km deep

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree


A couple 5s and a 5.7 hardly qualify as a mega swarm.

Why the sensationalism?

reply to post by watchitburn


You call this sensationalism? All I did was point out an area that doesn't get much action got action very quickly and the quakes were not very deep, just suggested we might keep an eye on it. And 5. quakes are not small.

Actually.. If you go to the event page:

5.3 Off South Africa

and zoom out a bit on the map? You see it's called South Africa only because they had to pick something for a land mass. It's showing almost half way between South Africa and Antarctica, in the open ocean. This tool, Quake search by Map coordinates, shows it's not a daily event, but not uncommon for that area, either.

Granted, some are doubles due to different reporting sites being listed on the list with the same quake (i.e the same quake is listed more than once) If you take that in to consideration, you'll see you're kinda crossing in to sensationalism with your thread title, because African does indeed jiggle around.

Latest earthquakes in AFRICA

Southern Africa + Southeastern Africa
SRC Location UTC Date/time M D INFORMATION
EMSC Mozambique Apr 26 11:58 AM 4.2 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS Mozambique Apr 26 11:58 AM 4.2 9 MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC Lake Albert Region, Congo Apr 20 00:30 AM 5.0 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Democratic Republic Of Congo Apr 20 00:30 AM 5.0 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS Lake Albert Region, Uganda Apr 20 00:30 AM 5.0 23 MAP I Felt It INFO
GEOFON Northwest Of Madagascar Mar 20 05:21 AM 4.8 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS Comoros Region Mar 20 05:21 AM 4.7 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC Comoros Region Mar 20 05:21 AM 4.7 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
GEOFON Lake Tanganyika Region Mar 10 03:00 AM 4.7 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC Lake Tanganyika Region Mar 10 03:00 AM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
USGS Lake Tanganyika Region Mar 10 03:00 AM 4.4 10 MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC Ethiopia Feb 12 20:52 PM 4.1 15 MAP I Felt It INFO
EMSC South Indian Ocean Feb 10 14:48 PM 5.2 2 MAP I Felt It INFO
GEOFON South Indian Ocean Feb 10 14:48 PM 5.2 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS South Indian Ocean Feb 10 14:48 PM 5.2 8 MAP I Felt It
USGS Madagascar Jan 25 23:37 PM 5.3 14 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Madagascar Jan 25 23:37 PM 5.3 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Madagascar Jan 25 23:37 PM 5.3 27 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Democratic Republic Of The Congo Dec 24 14:35 PM 4.9 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Lake Tanganyika Region Dec 24 14:35 PM 4.9 9 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Mozambique Channel Dec 14 15:18 PM 4.9 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Mozambique Channel Dec 14 15:18 PM 4.7 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Rwanda Nov 20 16:23 PM 4.9 15 MAP I Felt It
USGS Lake Edward Region, Uganda Nov 20 16:23 PM 4.9 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Uganda Nov 20 16:23 PM 4.9 23 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON South Indian Ocean Nov 08 03:24 AM 5.0 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC South Indian Ocean Nov 08 03:24 AM 5.1 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS South Indian Ocean Nov 08 03:24 AM 5.1 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Tanzania Oct 31 15:15 PM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS Tanzania Oct 31 15:15 PM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Tanzania Oct 14 19:11 PM 4.2 10 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Democratic Republic Of Congo Oct 14 16:25 PM 4.5 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS Democratic Republic Of The Congo Oct 14 16:25 PM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Democratic Republic Of The Congo Oct 14 16:25 PM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Tanzania Oct 02 09:32 AM 4.8 2 MAP I Felt It
GEOFON Tanzania Oct 02 09:32 AM 4.7 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Tanzania Sep 26 13:14 PM 4.6 10 MAP I Felt It
USGS Tanzania Sep 26 13:14 PM 4.5 10 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Golfe De Tadjoura, Djibouti Sep 16 09:06 AM 3.9 3 MAP I Felt It
EMSC Golfe De Tadjoura, Djibouti Sep 15 16:01 PM 3.1 3 MAP I Felt It

Notice yours aren't actually on the South & Southeastern Africa list? That's because they're not African quakes. They're in the Southern Ocean 2,060 kilometers (1280 miles) away, at the nearest. They're closer to Bouvet Island, a sub-antarctic island 1,264 kilometers (785 miles) away from where the quake was, than they are to Africa. And they're along the Southwestern Indian-Antarctic Ridge.Your Southern Mid-Atlantic quake is 454 more miles WSW of Bouvet, putting it 454 miles further away from Africa.

What you are doing would be like calling an earthquake in Illinois a Florida event, for distance perspective. Not very accurate at all is it?