Quakes rattle northeastern Tanzania, tremors felt in Kenya
Pastor Dale Morgan
Quakes rattle northeastern Tanzania, tremors felt in Kenya*
NAIROBI, July 15 (AFP) Jul 15, 2007
Earthquakes measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale have been rattling
northeastern Tanzania in the past four days and tremors were also felt
in neighbouring Kenya, officials said Sunday.
Kenya Meteorological Department official Peter Ambenje said the tremors,
which lasted about one minute, were last recorded in northeastern
Tanzania's Lake Natron at around 2:24 pm (1124 GMT) on Sunday.
"More earthquakes will be felt in the area because it lies on East
Africa's Great Rift Valley which runs along a geological fault line," he
said.
"Kenyans should not be worried because we are unlikely to be affected by
the tremors," he added.
Another quake was felt at about 11.43 pm, (2043 GMT), but there was no
damage reported from the series of tremors that has sent panic across
Nairobi, a department official said.
Ambenje played down fears that it could be a sign of volcanic activity
from Mount Kilimanjaro, an inactive volcano in northeast Tanzania, near
the border with Kenya.
In December 2005, a powerful earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika
region of East Africa.
That quake, which French geologists said registered 7.5 on the Richter
scale and US geologists said was a magnitude 6.8, shook buildings in
cities throughout the east and central African region.