November 20, 1906 Earthquake: Ho, Akpafu, Palime, Misa, Accra, Togo, Ghana

November 20, 1906, 21:00 UTC, Ghana, 6.5 N, 0.3 E, MF 5.0, intensity VIII. This earthquake is relatively well documented. The epicentral region of the main shock and of most of the strongest aftershocks are near Ho and extend between Misa and Kpong. At Ho Government buildings were badly damaged and a few were partly destroyed. At Akpafu, Palime and Misa as well as at Douglasdorf the mission buildings and many houses were badly

cracked and some of them had to be evacuated. Elsewhere damage was less serious and no casualties were reported. In Accra damage to Government buildings was slight with the exception of the Christiansborg Castle and James and Ussher Forts which suffered more. Damage to the African part of the town was slight and in the European district a few houses cracked, but none seriously. An abnormal fluctuation of the sea level was noticed on the coast of Togo, where the sea flooded the coast a number of times to a depth of a few tens of metres, but without damage. The main shock was felt within a radius of 240 km and the largest of the aftershocks within half this distance. Much of the damage caused in the epicentral region around Ho was due to the main shock, but some was also due to the 15 strong aftershocks that followed in the next 48 h. Aftershocks continued until 27 February 1907, all of them clustering in the region between Palime and Ho, except for the last (and largest), which seems to have been centered between Kumasi and Accra.

This earthquake was not recorded by the primitive

seismological network of the time. The fact that the

nearest stations in Spain at distances of 30 to 32 deg,

those in the Azores, Malta and Italy at distances of 32 to 34 deg and at Helwan at 37 deg, did not record the event

implies a magnitude smaller than about 5.5, which is

consistent with the radius of perceptibility of the

earthquake and the determination of MF 5.0.

(above from reference #1214)