OCHA Regional Office for Central and East Africa

Earthquake Risk in Africa: Modified Mercalli Scale

Issued: December 2007

France Croatia Russia Kazakhstan

Italy Bulgaria
Andorra Macedonia Georgia
Albania
Spain Armenia Azerbaijan
Portugal Greece
Turkey

Gibraltar
Atl an tic Oc ea n Malta
Cyprus Syria
Tunisia Me dit erra ne an Se a Iran
Lebanon
Iraq
Morocco
Jordan
Israel
Kuwait
Algeria

Libya Egypt Bahrain

Qatar
Western Sahara
Saudi Arabia

Mauritania Red Sea

Mali Niger

Yemen
Chad Eritrea
Senegal
Sudan
Gambie, The
Guinea-Bissau Burkina Faso Djibouti Gulf of Aden
Guinea
Benin Nigeria Somalia
Sierra Leone Cote d'Ivoire Togo Ethiopia
Ghana
Liberia Central African Republic
Cameroon

Sao Tome
and Principe Equatorial Guinea
Atl an tic Oc ea n Uganda Kenya
Republic
Gabon of Congo
Democratic
Republic Rwanda
of Congo
Burundi

Ind ian O ce an
Earthquake Intensity Zones in Africa Tanzania

This map shows earthquake intensity zones in accordance with

the 1956 version of the Modified Mercalli Scale (MM), describing Seychelles
the effects of an earthquake on the surface of the earth and
integrating numerous parameters such as ground acceleration, Comoros
duration of an earthquake, and subsoil effects. It also includes
historical earthquake reports. Angola
Malawi
Mozambique
The Zones indicate where there is a probability of 20 percent that Zambia
degrees of intensity shown on the map will be exceeded in 50
years.This probability figure varies with time; i.e., it is lower for
shorter periods and higher for longer periods.
Madagascar
Zimbabwe
Islands and countries too small to be easily visible are
represented by boxes giving an approximate level of equivalent
risk based on data from Munich Reinsurance Company's NATHAN
system. Botswana
Namibia

Earthquake Intensity
Modified Mercalli Scale I. Instrumental Swaziland
II. Feeble
Degree I-V III. Slight South Africa
IV. Moderate Lesotho
Degree VI V. Rather Strong
VI. Strong 0 750 1,500
Degree VII VII. Very Strong
VIII. Destructive
Degree VIII IX. Ruinous Kilometers
Degree IX-XII X. Disastrous
XI. Very Disastrous
Insufficient data XII. Catastrophic
United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA)
Map data source: UNESCO (1987) through UNEP/GRID-Geneva, 1994, GAUL 2007, Regional Office for Central and East Africa
Hazard data from UNEP/GRID, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC), and the Natural (ROCEA)
Hazard Assessment Network (NATHAN) by the Munich Reinsurance Co. Email: roceainfo@un.org

The names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations Map: Earthquake_071219