THERE has been a small earth tremor recorded at Meeniyan, at 9.29pm last night, November 11 measuring 2.1 on the Richter scale (ML).
Authorities say the latest quake is one of a series of earthquakes in the same area.
Chief Seismologist at the Seismology Research Centre, Adam Pascale, said it was the fifth tremor in the same area following a much bigger shake measuring magnitude 4.3 on Friday, February 9, 2024 at 12.49am.
The latest quake had an epicentre, at a depth of 9km, at longitude: 145.99, latitude: -38.58, which is a location close to the Great Southern Rail Trail and South Gippsland Highway, just west of the Tarwin River Bridge near Meeniyan.
Speaking on ABC Gippsland Radio today, Mr Pascale said it wasn’t possible to predict when the tremors would take place but acknowledged it was a highly active area.
“We've got a location closer to Meeniyan where we've been having these earthquakes since that 4.3 back in February. So, yeah, this is, I think, the fifth or sixth little earthquake that we've had since that 4.3.”
Asked if there had been reports from locals who felt the tremor, Mr Pascale said a reasonable number.
“Yes, so a couple of dozen reports have been made to Geoscience Australia, which is the national authority for earthquakes, and they usually collect most of the earthquake reports that have been felt.
“This one’s pretty small. We've got it as a 2.1. I know GA has got it at 2.8 but we've got a lot more stations in Gippsland, and we've got a pretty good handle on the magnitude there.”
Is there a fault line in the area.
“Wherever you have an earthquake, it's happened on a fault line, which is where two pieces of rock are sort of up against each other and they're under stress, and then when they slip, it creates an earthquake. So, there are lots and lots of fault lines throughout Gippsland. So, wherever you have an earthquake, it's sort of identifying where one of those faults is located.”
Tell us about the fault line at Meeniyan.
So, back in on the eighth of February, we had a 4.3 on near Meeniyan and since then, we've had a couple of magnitude twos; so, a 2.1, a 2.4 and a 2.7 over the last few months. The last time that area particularly was acting up was back in 2002. There was quite a number of events in the sort of magnitude two to three range. So, it sort of comes and goes. Stress builds up on that fault, and then it slips, and then it catches again and starts building up stress again. So that's the cycle we're seeing again.”
But you can’t predict future faults.
“Unfortunately, not. There's no sort of precursors to earthquakes, so there's nothing that happens before an earthquake consistently that allows us to predict earthquakes. So, what we observe is we see a major event happen, and then aftershocks occur, and then we can know that the forecast for that sequence might be that we'll see a number of magnitude twos over the following months. And we can sort of expect, we know what to expect roughly after an event starts, but we can't really see into the future.”
And are there many fault lines in Gippsland?
“Absolutely, so wherever you see mountains, basically those features are being formed by earthquakes over millions of years. And Gippsland's got the Great Dividing Range running down into it. So, all that area there has fault lines that have created those mountains through earthquakes. So yeah, that's really your rule of thumb. If you see a mountain or a hill that's likely to have been formed by earthquakes on faults nearby.”
Can you see anything move?
“Imperceptivity at these sorts of magnitudes, you're not seeing any movement at the surface. These are all happening at, you know, generally, around 10 kilometres deep. These earthquakes, so you're not going to see any, actually, any movement at the surface. But yeah, over millions of years, you'll have big events that all shifted up a few millimetres at a time. So that's, that's how they got there.”
So, in a few million years or so, we might even see a ski resort to the west of Meeniyan, who knows!
From Facebook
Here are some reports from the Sentinel-Times’ Facebook page:
-
Jill Vella: Yes, a bang. Cat jumped and so did I. We blamed the dog.
- Tracey Osborne: Yes, felt it in Tarwin shook the house.
- Sharon Jones: Yep, very evident at Nerrena.
- Clare Gray: Yes, mostly heard it more than I felt it.
- Allison Drury: Yes, just a small ‘thump’ that vibrated the house here in Meeniyan.
