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Athanas Macheyeki, University of Gent (Belgium)
Damien Delvaux, Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium)
Marc De Batist, University of Gent (Belgium)
Abdulkarim Mruma, Ministry of Energy and Minerals (Tanzania)
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The Dodoma area that is within the Tanzania craton is located south of the Tanzania divergence zone. It is characterized by moderate earthquakes. In November 4, 2002 for example, an earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 (Mw) struck the area. This quake that also affected the parliament building brought about awareness amongst people on geo-hazards potential in the area.
At least seven (7) active faults have been revealed in the area; the displacement profiles and geometric pattern of which show that the faults are segmented. The length of each segment reflects the size of potential earthquake (s). Segments in the Dodoma area can generate large earthquakes of the order of Mw = 6.3 - 7.0.
However, limited paleoseismic data indicate that the last largest earthquake event in the Dodoma area took place in Mid - Holocene and was Mw = 6.3 - 6.4. The corresponding recurrence time is estimated to be 2833 - 2855 yr, with a computed slip - rate of about 3.5 mm / yr.
Key words: Tanzania, Dodoma, fault segments, trenching, earthquake magnitude
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