2009 Karonga earthquakes

2009 Karonga earthquakes December 6, 2009 December 8, 2009 December 12, 2009 December 20, 2009 19:36 (CAT, UTC+2:00) 05:08 04:27 01:19 Malawi 2009-12-06 17:36:36 2009-12-08 03:08:57 2009-12-12 02:27:03 2009-12-19 23:19:15 16413651 14010603 14094930 16413801 usp000h4ta usp000h4v7 usp000h4z6 usp000h56x w yes 5.8 w 5.9 w 5.5 w 6.0 9.0 km 8.0 km 10.0 km 6.0 km 8 4 dead, 300 injured y The 2009 Karonga earthquakes occurred near Karonga, Malawi in December 2009 near the northern tip of Lake Malawi in southeast Africa. The earthquakes were one of the biggest in the history of Malawi. Geology Being in the southern East African Rift, the 100 km-long Livingstone Fault marks the limit of the Karonga Basin. The earthquakes, located at about 50 km west of the Livingstone Fault, occurred along previously unknown buried faults beneath the Quaternary unconsolidated sediments. Satellite-based geophysical investigations indicated that one of the west dipping faults which cut the Karonga Basin might have ruptured during the earthquakes.http://www.knmi.nl/~graafdem/publications/2010_ESA_LP_Dransfeld_etal.pdf Archived copy 2010-07-31 https://web.archive.org/web/20110622034530/http://www.knmi.nl/~graafdem/publications/2010_ESA_LP_Dransfeld_etal.pdf 2011-06-22 dead Hamiel Y. Baer G. Kalindekafe L. Dombola K. Chindandali P. October 2012 Seismic and aseismic slip evolution and deformation associated with the 2009-2010 northern Malawi earthquake swarm, East African Rift Geophysical Journal International 191 3 898 10.1111/j.1365-246x.2012.05673.x 0956-540X 2012GeoJI.191..898H free The studies also estimated a maximum slip of about 120 cm at 3–5 km depth with no evidence of dike-injection related activity associated with many earthquakes in Eastern Africa. Another study utilized aeromagnetic data to image the basement structure around the rupture area and found that multiple buried faults ruptured during the earthquake among which are the St. Mary Fault (extending over 37 km in length) and the Kaporo Fault which is 36 km long and is buried beneath Lake Malawi.Kolawole F. Atekwana E. A. Laó-Dávila D. A. Abdelsalam M. G. Chindandali P. R. Salima J. Kalindekafe L. March 2018 Active Deformation of Malawi Rift's North Basin Hinge Zone Modulated by Reactivation of Preexisting Precambrian Shear Zone Fabric Tectonics 37 3 683–704 10.1002/2017tc004628 0278-7407 2018Tecto..37..683K free Scientists have proposed that the dominance of seismicity in this part of northern Malawi may be due to the presence of pre-existing planes of weakness in the basement rocks that are favorably oriented to the tectonic stress field of the East African Rift. Earthquakes Date Local Time(UTC +2) Magnitude(w y) Latitude Longitude Depth Casualties December 6, 2009 19:36 5.8 10.16°S 33.82°E 10 kmhttps://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2009pwa4/us/index.html M5.8 – Malawi United States Geological Survey 2010-08-01 December 8, 2009 05:08 5.9 9.948°S 33.878°E 8 kmhttps://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2009pyai/us/index.html M5.9 – Malawi United States Geological Survey 2010-08-01 1https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/significant/sig_2009.php Significant Earthquakes of the World United States Geological Survey 2010-08-01 December 12, 2009 04:27 5.4 9.96°S 33.88°E 10 kmhttps://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2009qcaf/us/index.html M5.4 – Malawi United States Geological Survey 2010-08-01 December 19, 2009 15:02 6.0 10.108°S 33.818°E 6 km 3 Intensity The main earthquake could also be felt in Tanzania and Zambia.https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/events/us/2009qjcb/index.html PAGER – M 6.0 – MALAWI United States Geological Survey 19 December 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20091223064646/https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/pager/events/us/2009qjcb/index.html 23 December 2009 dead 19 November 2023 Damage Over 1,000 houses collapsed, 2,900 others were damaged, 4 people were killed and 300 people were wounded in this earthquake sequence.http://comet.nerc.ac.uk/current_research_karonga.html COMET – Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes and Tectonics | Homepage Comet.nerc.ac.uk 2010-08-01 https://web.archive.org/web/20100813025036/http://comet.nerc.ac.uk/current_research_karonga.html 13 August 2010 dead https://reliefweb.int/report/malawi/malawi-karonga-earthquake-unrc-situation-report-no-1 Malawi: Karonga earthquake UNRC situation report no. 1 ReliefWeb 2024-09-12 The majority of the building collapse was caused by liquefaction that occurred within a shallow layer of saturated unconsolidated lake sediments along the shoreline.Kolawole F Atekwana E A Laó-Dávila D A Abdelsalam M G Chindandali P R Salima J Kalindekafe L 2018-02-19 High-resolution electrical resistivity and aeromagnetic imaging reveal the causative fault of the 2009 Mw 6.0 Karonga, Malawi earthquake Geophysical Journal International 213 2 1412–1425 10.1093/gji/ggy066 0956-540X free The locations of ground damage and liquefaction align with the fault that ruptured the earthquake. References External links 16413801 Category:Earthquakes in Africa Category:Natural disasters in Malawi Karonga earthquakes Karonga earthquakes Karonga earthquakes Category:Earthquake clusters, swarms, and sequences