NAMIBIANS may never know whether part of Windhoek was hit by an earthquake on Thursday night as the capital’s two seismological stations were not working.
An official at the geophysics department in the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s Geological Survey directorate confirmed several reports by residents of Eros and Klein Windhoek who felt the earth shake for a few seconds at about 22h00 for a few seconds. “We are not sure whether it was an earthquake or just another explosion, but something happened,” said Rainer Wackerle, of the geophysics department.Wackerle, who lives in Windhoek’s eastern suburbs, said he had never experienced an earthquake before and therefore could not say what caused the trembling.Residents of the two suburbs telephoned The Namibian to report the shaking and were convinced it was nothing short of an earth tremor.Wackerle said their department could not confirmed what the residents heard and felt, because the seismic station in Windhoek was temporarily shut due to office renovations.Another seismic station, at Tsumeb, was also out of action at the time of the suspected earthquake because of rain.”The problem with Tsumeb is that there was water leakage,” said Wackerle.The Tsumeb seismic centre is part of a global network that measures earth movements and some data could have been obtained by other stations linked to it, especially in the United States.One resident said she and her family felt their house move and heard clanging of metal and glasses for two seconds two hours before midnight.Wackerle said he was under the impression that he and his family felt the trembling around 20h00 because “I’m thinking it was still twilight”.It could take more than a week to get information from outside Namibia, if any overseas station picked up the movement.”We are not sure whether it was an earthquake or just another explosion, but something happened,” said Rainer Wackerle, of the geophysics department. Wackerle, who lives in Windhoek’s eastern suburbs, said he had never experienced an earthquake before and therefore could not say what caused the trembling. Residents of the two suburbs telephoned The Namibian to report the shaking and were convinced it was nothing short of an earth tremor. Wackerle said their department could not confirmed what the residents heard and felt, because the seismic station in Windhoek was temporarily shut due to office renovations. Another seismic station, at Tsumeb, was also out of action at the time of the suspected earthquake because of rain. “The problem with Tsumeb is that there was water leakage,” said Wackerle. The Tsumeb seismic centre is part of a global network that measures earth movements and some data could have been obtained by other stations linked to it, especially in the United States. One resident said she and her family felt their house move and heard clanging of metal and glasses for two seconds two hours before midnight. Wackerle said he was under the impression that he and his family felt the trembling around 20h00 because “I’m thinking it was still twilight”. It could take more than a week to get information from outside Namibia, if any overseas station picked up the movement.
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