Source : Perth Now news
Melbourne and the outskirts of Victorians were jolted out of bed overnight, after being hit with the most powerful earthquake in the region in over three years.
Geoscience Australia (GA) confirmed a 4.8 magnitude tremor hit the city’s east, erupting from a shallow depth of just 10km at 2.01am on Saturday.
Local resident and NewsWire reporter Blair Jackson had just settled in with a book when he felt his room shaking.
“I thought someone upstairs might have dropped something huge, which at 2am was a worry.”
”Then I felt a second, bigger shake and I could feel and hear our seven-storey building shaking for about maybe five seconds,” Mr Jackson said.
”I got up to check my phone and the cat was sitting bolt upright, so before I could check the earthquake map I figured I wasn’t imagining things.”
GA has said more than 17,000 Victorians have reported feeling the earthquakes.
The agency’s “shake map” of the incident showed reports came in from all over Melbourne, east to Traralgon, north up to Mansfield and west including Geelong and Torquay.
GA seismologist Hadi Ghasemi told Channel 9’s Weekend Today program the earthquake was a “moderate-sized shallow event” with a 3.1 magnitude aftershock already recorded.
Dr Ghasemi said there had been more than 200 earthquakes within 100km of the epicentre in the past 20 years.
“The largest one was magnitude 5.4 in 2012, close to Moree. So I think it’s a it’s common to have earthquakes for this part of Australia, but most of them, of course, are very small ones,” he said.
Victoria State Emergency Service put out informing locals that there is no threat to the area and that no action is required.
“If you felt the earthquake, stay calm, check for hazards, and be prepared for further possible aftershocks,” the statement said.
For earthquake related emergency assistance from the SES phone 132 500.
