Earthquake sequence in Mayotte since May the 13th 2018

Last update: 19 November 2018 at 08:51 UTC


Earthquake details | Earthquake sequence | Felt reports
 

 

Earthquake details

Since May the 13th 2018, a series of shallow (between 10 and 30 km depth) earthquakes have been recorded near the Mayotte Island with magnitude spanning from 4.2 to 5.8. From the begining of the sequence to June 6th, we have collected 9 eathquakes of magnitude greater or equal to M 5.0.

Due to the bad seismic stations coverage in the region, events of magnitude M < 4 are not detected and location errors for events of magnitude M > 4 can reach about 10 km.

More information can be found on:

Since the begining of June, the number of earthquakes increases and many comments collected et EMSC show that part of the population is worried about their safety. Moreover, we have collected some pictures showing small cracks on building.

Recent analysis (ENS - volcanology) seems to show that this crisis is not only seismic and has also a volcanic origin.

 

Earthquake sequence since May the 13th 2018

Distribution of the 57 earthquakes collected by the EMSC between May the 13th and June 6th in the region of Mayotte. The event west of Comores M5.0 is probably not part of the sequence but it has been felt in Mayotte.

Past regional seismicity in the region with the ISC and EMSC catalog between 1960 and May the 23th 2018.

Felt reports

During this sequence the EMSC has collected more than 8 000 felt reports.

Each peak of collection (in red) corresponds to a felt aftershock. Some of them correspond probably to smaller earthquakes where the EMSC could not find any information. The blue line corresponds to the absolute value of the seismic signal recorded at the station II.ABPO.00.LHZ located in Madagascar (≈ 730 km from Mayotte).

 

Map of Felt reports for 3 events of the sequence with a magnitude >5  events.

2018-05-15 15:48 - M5.8 2018-05-20 08:01 - M5.3 2018-05-30 05:54 - M5.0

(generated with the results of the online questionnaire)
(click to enlarge)

 

Pictures from eye-witnesses

Pictures from eyewitnesses showing that some cracks appear on buildings.