A 3.8-magnitude earthquake in the Melbourne suburb of Sunbury has struck at a depth of three kilometres, according to Geoscience Australia.
Key points:
- The earthquake was reported at 11:41pm on Sunday
- It lasted only a few seconds but residents in central Melbourne felt the impact
- Seismologist Adam Pascale believes it’s the biggest earthquake in the city of Melbourne in 100 years
Melbourne residents reported buildings shaking on Sunday evening around 11:41pm.
Although Sunbury is 40 kilometres north-west of the city, the earthquake’s impact was felt in Melbourne’s CBD.
The tremor lasted only a few seconds, according to residents.
More than 20,000 people in Sunbury had reported feeling the earthquake to Geoscience Australia by around 1:30am.
The tremor was also felt as far north as Bendigo and as south as Hobart.
There were no immediate reports of widespread damage or injuries, and no tsunami threat.
Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre (SRC), said the magnitude-4 earthquake was located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, around the Craigieburn and Greenvale area.
He took to Twitter during the tremor, saying that it may have been the largest earthquake in over 100 years within the Melbourne metropolitan area.
“The last earthquake above a magnitude 4 in the metro area was in 1902,” Mr Pascale said in a video posted on Twitter.
Although it was shallow, there could potentially be damage near the epicentre, he added.
Dee Ninis from the SRC said people close to the epicentre reported hearing an explosion.
“This looks to have been a shallow event — the seismic energy produced by such earthquakes can reach the surface to transform into sound waves, making a ‘boom’,” she tweeted.
Melbourne was rattled by an earthquake in September 2021, which caused some damage, including on the famous Chapel Street shopping strip.
At magnitude-5.9, it was the largest earthquake ever recorded in Victoria, but its epicentre was at Woods Point, about 130 kilometres east of Melbourne.
The 2021 tremor was also felt in parts of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.
On average, Australia experiences around 100 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or larger each year, according to Geoscience Australia.
Earthquakes above magnitude-5, such as the destructive 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Newcastle in 1989, occur approximately every one to two years.