Haut-Katanga: an earthquake felt in Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi, April 9^th, 2025 (CPA) – An earthquake whose magnitude on the Reichter scale was not communicated was felt on Monday at 10.36pm in Lubumbashi, in the province of Haut-Katanga, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), CPA has learnt from a university source.  « The earthquake occurred at 10.36pm, with the epicentre on the Congo and Zambian border. It was what is known as a felt tremor. The seismic observation station at the University of Lubumbashi’s Faculty of Geology has been out of use since 2015. To date, the seismologists at the University of Lubumbashi are unable to accurately define the magnitude of this earthquake« , has said a seismologist from the university who requested to be anonymous. The station, which is the result of cooperation between the University of Lubumbashi and the Tervuren Museum in Belgium, has a faulty main cable worth 15,000 US dollars, he has said. « In the specific case of Lubumbashi, which is located in a seismically active region, it is highly likely that yesterday evening’s earthquake was due to tectonic movements along local faults. This region is crossed by the East African mobile belt, a zone of convergence of tectonic plates that can generate earthquakes of different intensities« , has said Patrick Mumamba Mukendi, geologist and geomine specialist at the University of Lubumbashi. An earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the ground caused by the displacement of rocks beneath the earth’s surface, or by volcanic or magmatic activity in the earth. Earthquakes occur suddenly, without warning, and can happen at any time. ACP/