F.C.D. Mphepo¹

¹Geological Survey Department, Mzuzu, Malawi

Abstract:

Malawi lies within the East African Rift System (EARS) that runs through Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi to the Ulema graben in Mozambique. It falls within one of the seismically active zones of the world. Malawi has experienced earthquakes ranging from small to moderate with some being so destructive, like the one on 9th March 1989 in Salima, and Karonga on the 19th December 2009, both along the Rift System. Malawi had the first station in the early sixties, at Chileka (CLK) in Blantyre and later in the seventies at Mzuzu (MZM). In 1989, three more analog stations were installed at Zomba (ZOMB), Lilongwe (LLM) and Mzuzu (MZM). Following the Karonga earthquakes in December 2009, another set of broadband stations were installed in 2012 making the local network of eleven (11) stations across the country. These include the two Africaarray broadband seismic stations that are collocated with GPS receivers and automated weather stations. The coming in of broadband stations has improved the network and the earthquakes recorded at local, regional and teleseismic distribution. However, much as the improvements are touted, there is lack of proper training for the personnel managing it. KEY WORDS: Malawi seismicity, seismic network, EARS, broadband.