Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Another day, another earthquake in Melbourne – albeit one that barely rattled a window.
GeoScience Australia’s website shows a magnitude-2.4 earthquake struck near Gembrook in the Dandenong Ranges at 1.26am on Wednesday morning.
Only a lucky 100-plus people on Melbourne’s eastern fringe reportedly felt this early-morning tremor though, which GeoScience Australia’s automated system has labelled as occurring near Pakenham.
The epicentre is still located some 15 kilometres further north of the outer south-eastern suburb.
Victoria SES issued a late-night tweet confirming the tremor and reporting no injuries or damage had been recorded.
Wednesday’s earthquake struck at a depth of three kilometres, according to GeoScience Australia.
A major magnitude-5.9 earthquake rocked Melbourne in September 2021 and has since sparked numerous aftershocks.
Just last Friday, a magnitude-4.6 quake – the largest since the record tremor in the midst of pandemic lockdowns two years ago – struck near Mt Baw Baw in eastern Victoria ,about 1.30am.
In late May, a magnitude-3.8 tremor near Sunbury, on Melbourne’s north-west fringe, was recorded as the largest earthquake in metropolitan Melbourne for 120 years. Experts told The Age at the time it was part of normal seismic activity.
A small earthquake also rattled parts of Melbourne’s south-east in mid-May, and Frankston was hit with a tremor last September.
The Seismology Research Centre says more than 1500 earthquakes have been recorded in the Woods Point area – close to the location of last Friday’s tremor – since the September 2021 earthquake.
Dr Dee Ninis, from the Seismology Research Centre, explained to this masthead last week there was a chance Victoria suffers a larger earthquake, but recent tremors were well within the expected aftershock sequence following the 2021 tremor.
Australian cities would have no advance warning if a huge earthquake were to strike because the country does not have an early warning system.
But, this masthead reported installing one similar to earthquake-prone areas like Japan and California would be technically challenging and extremely costly, especially considering Australia’s relatively benign tremors.
Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article