The Rukwa earthquake of 13 December 1910 in East Africa

Abstract

We reappraised the Rukwa earthquake of 1910 in the East African Rift System. With a magnitude of 7.4, no earthquake in East Africa is known to be larger and it is rivalled only by the recent earthquake in southern Sudan on 20 May 1990. More than 80 per cent of the moment release in the Rift during the last 110 years is due to the Rukwa earthquake and its aftershocks that occurred between the Tanganyka and Nyasa systems. In spite of its large magnitude, the Rukwa earthquake caused very little damage to local types of dwellings and no loss of life. With increasing development of urban areas with modern types of houses, there is now increasing risk in East Africa from major earthquakes.

Evidence of recent faulting in the Rukwa rift (West Tanzania) based on radar interferometric DEMs

“…Historical seismicity is marked by the 1910 Rukwa earthquake (Ms 7.4) that was felt all over East-Africa and is known to be the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Africa except for the 1990 Sudan event. Though its exact location remains uncertain (Ambraseys, 1991), the earthquake epicentre was located in the Ufipa Plateau possibly associated with the Kanda Fault (Vittori et al, 1997) (see Fig. 1).…”

Tectonic control over active volcanism at a range of scales: Case of the Rungwe Volcanic Province, SW Tanzania; and hazard implications

“…An M 7.4 tectonic earthquake occurred in the nearby Rukwa Rift in 1910 (Ambraseys, 1991;Delvaux et al, 1998). More recently, the US Geological Survey earthquake database (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/epic, circular search with 200 km radius around Rungwe volcano) lists 21 M P 4.5 earthquakes in the RVP region since 1973.…”

THE Malaŵi Earthquake of March 10, 1989: DEep faulting within the East African Rift System

“…The largest known normal faulting earthquakes in the region are the Ms 6.9 earthquake of 1928 in Kenya, which moved an apparently continuous fault segment at least 38 kin long [Ambraseys, 1991a], and the Mw 7.1 earthquake of May 24, 1990 in Sudan (Table 1), about which no field information is known. The 1910 Rukwa earthquake was larger still (Ms~7.4), but there is no clear evidence that it involved normal faulting [Ambraseys, 1991b].…”