Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BACON, M. Articles by QUAAH, A. O. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Earthquake activity in southeastern Ghana (1977-1980)

DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY CHELSEA COLLEGE, 271 KING STREET, LONDON W6 U.K.

Abstract

Although Ghana is remote from the major earthquake zones, it is moderately active seismically, with a history of earthquakes damaging the capital, Accra. Seismic recording with a variety of instruments during 1977 to 1980 has enabled us to develop a crustal velocity model and locate epicenters. Most of the earthquakes occur in an area to the west of Accra around the junction of two major fault systems, the east-west trending Coastal Boundary fault and the NNE trending Akwapim fault zone. Fault plane solutions suggest a mixture of normal faulting on the Akwapim fault zone (in agreement with geological evidence) and strike-slip faulting, in response to a regional ESE tensional stress perhaps caused by strike-slip movement along the Romanche fracture zone. In view of the high stress suggested by the low b value for the recorded events, precautions against earthquake hazard in Accra would be timely.