M5.9 earthquake 40 km E of Kaputa, Zambia
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck 40 km E of Kaputa, Zambia on Fri, Feb 24, 2017, 2:32 AM GMT+2 (00:32 UTC), 30 km (19 mi) below the surface.
Map
Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.9 (Mww, W-phase moment), moderate
- Magnitude from
- USGS National Earthquake Information Center
- Local time
- UTC
- 2017-02-24 00:32:17 UTC
- Depth
- 30.0 km (18.6 mi), shallow
- Epicenter
- 8.440° S, 30.030° E
- Region
- Zambia
- Felt reports
- 3
- Strongest shaking
- VI, strong shaking
- PAGER alert
- Green
- Tsunami flag
- No
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
Magnitude estimates
Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.
| Mag. | Scale | Computed by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.9 | Mww, W-phase moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Preferred · Reviewed · ±0.053 · 34 stations |
| 5.95 | Mw, moment | ISC-GEM global catalog | Final · ±0.1 |
| 5.9 | Mwb, body-wave moment | USGS National Earthquake Information Center | Moment tensor · Reviewed |
Deaths and damage
From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 10404), matched to this event by time and place.
- Injuries
- 5
- Damage
- Limited (under about $1 million)
- Houses destroyed
- Few (about 1 to 50)
Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.
What happened
The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.
Five people injured and 11 families displaced after their houses collapsed in Kaputa.
From the USGS event page for us20008lww. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.
Shaking
The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
- Strongest estimated
- VI, strong shaking
- Peak ground acceleration
- 13.7% of gravity
- Peak ground velocity
- 2.5 cm/s
- Map
- Automatic
Did you feel it?
3 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was IV, light shaking.
Estimated impact
The USGS PAGER system estimates deaths and economic losses from the shaking and the population and buildings exposed to it.
- Alert level
- Green: little or no damage or loss of life expected
| Range | Chance |
|---|---|
| Under 1 | 65% |
| 1 to 10 | 30% |
| 10 to 100 | 4% |
| 100 to 1,000 | Under 1% |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | Under 1% |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | Under 1% |
| 100,000 to 10,000,000 | Under 1% |
| Range, million USD | Chance |
|---|---|
| Under 1 | 65% |
| 1 to 10 | 30% |
| 10 to 100 | 4% |
| 100 to 1,000 | Under 1% |
| 1,000 to 10,000 | Under 1% |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | Under 1% |
| 100,000 to 10,000,000 | Under 1% |
Fault motion and ground failure
How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.
- Faulting
- Normal
- Moment magnitude
- 5.9 Mww
- Nodal plane 1
- Strike 84°, dip 43°, rake -76°
- Nodal plane 2
- Strike 245°, dip 49°, rake -102°
How well it is located
Reviewed by a seismologist.
- Location uncertainty
- About 7.4 km horizontally, 1.7 km in depth
- Magnitude uncertainty
- ±0.05
- Depth from
- From modeling of broad-band P waveforms
- Station coverage gap
- 16°
- Stations used
- 599
Nearest places
Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.
Nearby
Within 100 km, magnitude 2.9 and up: 5 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.
After
- 4.241 km E of Kaputa, Zambia · 3509 days ago · 35 km deep · 3 km away
- 4.233 km E of Kaputa, Zambia · 3509 days ago · 34 km deep · 9 km away
- 4.627 km ESE of Kaputa, Zambia · 3505 days ago · 34 km deep · 16 km away
- 4.143 km E of Kaputa, Zambia · 3475 days ago · 10 km deep · 7 km away
- 4.712 km SW of Nkove, Tanzania · 3468 days ago · 10 km deep · 93 km away
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Sources
From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us20008lww (also filed as iscgem611831881). Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC.