Associated Press
Feb. 22 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.5 struck Mozambique, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday. There was no immediate word on injuries or damages.
The quake hit at 12:19 a.m. Thursday local time. Its epicenter was 140 miles southwest of Beira, on Mozambique's Indian Ocean coast, USGS spokeswoman Clarice Ransom said. She said the initial reading had been 6.9 but was adjusted upward.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Durban, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe.
A newspaper editor in Maputo said he was in the 11th floor of an apartment building that was rocked by the quake.
"It shook a lot. We could feel it very strongly," Fernando Velosa, editor of Jornal de Mocambique, told Lisbon radio station TSF. Portugal is the former colonial ruler of the African nation.
The quake was shallow, which increases the potential for damage, said Dale Grant, a geophysics with the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., which is a clearinghouse for temblors worldwide.
"It was felt very widely in in the epicentral area, though it's not a very heavily populated area," Grant said. "There is certain to be damage, but so far, we've had absolutely no word of damage."
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Feb. 22 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.5 struck Mozambique, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday. There was no immediate word on injuries or damages.
The quake hit at 12:19 a.m. Thursday local time. Its epicenter was 140 miles southwest of Beira, on Mozambique's Indian Ocean coast, USGS spokeswoman Clarice Ransom said. She said the initial reading had been 6.9 but was adjusted upward.
The earthquake was felt as far away as Durban, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe.
A newspaper editor in Maputo said he was in the 11th floor of an apartment building that was rocked by the quake.
"It shook a lot. We could feel it very strongly," Fernando Velosa, editor of Jornal de Mocambique, told Lisbon radio station TSF. Portugal is the former colonial ruler of the African nation.
The quake was shallow, which increases the potential for damage, said Dale Grant, a geophysics with the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., which is a clearinghouse for temblors worldwide.
"It was felt very widely in in the epicentral area, though it's not a very heavily populated area," Grant said. "There is certain to be damage, but so far, we've had absolutely no word of damage."
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