Reports came in from across NSW and the ACT from people who felt the 4.4 magnitude earthquake. Photo: Geoscience Australia.
If your television started shaking as you were winding down for the evening last night, or your toothbrush fell off the sink, there’s a good reason: NSW was rocked by an earthquake.
The 4.4-magnitude earthquake was detected near Boorowa in the Hilltops region at about 7:10 pm last night (11 March), but it was felt for miles around.
More than 7000 ‘felt’ reports have already been made to Geoscience Australia.
Number of ‘felt’ reports regarding last night’s earthquake. Image: Geoscience Australia.
“It was felt very widely across the state, all the way from Albury in the south up to Gosford in the north,” Geoscience Australia seismologist Hugh Glanville said.
Earthquakes aren’t uncommon for Australia, but they tend to be much weaker than in other parts of the world.
Mr Glanville said at least 25 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4 or higher had occurred in the past “few 100 years”.
“This is the largest [earthquake] we’ve had since 1977, when we had a 4.8 earthquake at Bowning, which did cause some minor damage,” he said.
“Earthquakes themselves are quite common in this area; this is just a little bit larger than the usual earthquake for the region.”
The past 20 years have seen 346 earthquakes recorded within 100 km of this 4.4 magnitude event.
Aftershocks are expected in the coming weeks, but they’re expected to be of smaller magnitudes.
But if the aftershocks are stronger than their predecessors, the advice is to ‘duck, cover and hold on’.
While any earthquake tremors may have felt minor to people from Temora to Canberra and down to the coast, it was a different story near the epicentre.
Boorowa locals took to their community notice board to report their experiences as the ground shook.
“[I first] thought a B double had crashed but kept rumbling. Paintings swayed on walls, dogs freaked out, cows didn’t care less … All good, no damage,” one person reported.
“It was massive here – noisy, rough and quite a long duration,” wrote another.
Commenters reported feeling rumblings in Canberra, Queanbeyan and Young as well.
One person felt everyone should just calm down.
“Someone must have made love for the first time in a long time and the earth moved. Now we should settle down and get on with our lives.”
If you felt the earthquake, Geoscience Australia would like to know.
Original Article published by Claire Fenwicke on Region Canberra.
