Editor TLN
() — Melbourne was rocked on Sunday by a rare and shallow earthquake, the largest quake to hit the Australian city in more than a century, which rattled buildings but ultimately caused very little damage.
Preliminary information indicated that the magnitude 3.8 earthquake rocked the northwestern suburb of Sunbury at 11:41 p.m. local time at a depth of 2 kilometers, according to government agency Geoscience Australia.
Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the Victoria-based Center for Seismology Research, said the earthquake it was the largest within 40 kilometers of Melbourne since a magnitude 4.5 quake in 1902.
“Woke me up! Probably 5-10 seconds of minor shaking. The adrenaline hasn’t worn off yet…” Pascale said on Twitter.
Geoscience Australia said it had received more than 21,000 reports of the quake, with shock waves being felt as far away as the city of Bendigo, some 150 kilometers north of Melbourne, and as far south as Hobart on the island of Tasmania.
In April, Melbourne overtook Sydney and became the most populous city in Australiaand many of the city’s 5.8 million residents woke up Monday with a story to tell.
“I felt like a plane crashed next to my house or something,” said one resident, according to affiliate 7News.
“I’m on the 70th floor of the Eureka Tower and the whole building swayed a couple of metres,” another Melbourne resident said on Twitter, referring to a downtown skyscraper, affiliate Sky News Australia reported.
One person said he “ran out of the house with a machete” in his pajamas.
“Our old house sounded like it was being broken into,” they added, according to Sky News Australia.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Twitter that there was no tsunami threat from the quake, although emergency services warned of possible aftershocks in a statement on Facebook.
Most earthquakes occur in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the world’s most active volcanoes are found and where tremors occur when tectonic plates push against each other.
Earthquakes are not as common in Australia, although the continent does experience seismic activity due to the movement of tectonic plates.
In 2021 Victoria experienced a magnitude 5.9 earthquake which caused some minor structural damage in Melbourne despite it occurring almost 200 kilometers away.
