September 10, 2016 Earthquake: Rakai, Lake Victoria, Uganda, Tanzania

At least 19 people killed, 253 injured and several thousand displaced; 840 houses destroyed and 1,264 seriously damaged in Bukoba. Felt (IV) at Mwanza. 4 people killed in Kamuli and 7 injured in Rakai; about 78 houses collapsed at Minziro and more than 40 houses collapsed at Kannabulemu, Uganda. Felt (V) at Mbarara and (IV) at Entebbe, Jinja, Kajansi, Kampala, Kireka, Masaka and Mbale. Also felt (V) at Kitale, Kenya. Felt throughout the Lake Victoria Basin. Felt (IV) at Kigali, Rwanda. Also felt at Gitarama and Kibungo. Felt (III) at Goma and (II) at Bukavu, Congo. Also felt at Kabare. Felt at Bujumbura and Gitega, Burundi. Kitale, Rift Valley, Kenya - CDI: 5; Mbarara, Western, Uganda - CDI: 5

Tectonic Summary

The September 10, 2016 M 5.9 earthquake near the west shore of Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania occurred as the result of shallow oblique faulting within the lithosphere of the Nubia (Africa) plate. The focal mechanism solution for the earthquake indicates rupture occurred on a moderately dipping fault striking either northeast-southwest (right-lateral slip) or east-west (left-lateral slip).

The location of the September 10, 2016 earthquake broadly places it in the East African Rift System, a 3,000-km-long Cenozoic age continental rift extending from the Afar triple junction (between the horn of Africa and the Middle East), to western Mozambique. The September 10, 2016 earthquake is consistent with mixed divergent and strike slip setting, and occurred somewhat centrally within that microplate, in an area with little to no recorded earthquakes over the past century.

Over the preceding century, only one other earthquake has been recorded within 100 km of the September 10, 2016 earthquake - a M 4.3 event in Lake Victoria in December 2013. Further afield, 22 M6+ events have occurred within 500 km of the September 10, 2016 earthquake over the preceding century, most on the Western Branch of the Rift System to the west of today's earthquake. These include a M 6.6 earthquake in March 1966 near Lake Edward on the Uganda-DRC border. Tanzania's largest historic earthquake over this time period was a M 7.2 event in July 1919, near Lake Tanganyika in the west of the country. A M 6.8 earthquake near the center of Lake Tanganyika in December 2005 resulted in half a dozen or more fatalities.

(above ref #13456)

The death toll from Saturday's earthquake stands at 19 not 17 as earlier reported, officials have revealed. Two people who had reportedly died at the weekend had not been counted among the earlier casualties. Regional authorities told The Citizen yesterday that the two were from Bukoba Rural. They have been identified as Lukman Suleiman, a one-month-old baby, from Kashenye Village, and Irene Jackson from Buterankuzi Village. Bukoba Rural council chairman Murshid Ngeze confirmed that the two were not among the 17 who had been reported dead following the earthquake that hit Kagera Region. At least 40 people were injured in Bukoba Rural alone, according to official reports. The earthquake has so far completely destroyed 1,044 houses and partly damaged 6,281 others.(ref#11604)

458 million USD in total damage in Tanzania (ref #1250, 12407)

At least four people are reported to have died in Rakai district [Uganda] following Saturday afternoon's earthquake that was felt in most areas within the Lake Victoria basin[...]"At least 10 houses have so far been recorded to caved in at Mayanja village[...]number of houses in the villages of Kakuuto, Katovu, Muzzi and Kyakawumuza were hit by rolling stones from Simba hill,"[...]"The most affected area is Kyebe sub-county, where about 78 houses collapsed at Minziiro and more 40" (ref #12336)

Rakai [Uganda] witnessed the death of 4 people[...]Tanzania's Kagera region was reported to have been the most devastated with ~11 deaths (ref #12407)