By Tanya Steele
An earthquake originating from Avonsleigh was felt by residents as far as Pakenham in the early Monday morning on 1 July.
Senior Seismologist Doctor Jonathan Bathgate from Geoscience Australia said that the quake was relatively small, and fairly ‘weak’ and credited the time of day to people feeling the quake at all.
“It’s not that common to have this level of magnitude reported and that early morning timeframe was just at the right time” he said.
Recorded at a magnitude of 1.4 and a depth of 5km at 03.55 AM residents around Cockatoo and as far as Warburton took to social media to query the noise created by the quake.
Some residents said the quake sounded like a loud bang, while others thought it was a small explosion – still others slept soundly on.
117 felt reports were lodged on the Geoscience Australia website and the organisation keeps watch on areas that are more seismically active, to be alert for patterns of activity ahead of larger events.
Dr Bathgate said that the epicentre area in Avonsleigh hasn’t had a significant quake for around 10 years.
“In the last ten years we’ve had an average total of 16 quakes reported in the beginning of July for this area,” he said.
“The largest was a 3.3 magnitude earthquake in 2014”.
The public can access the Geoscience website to see areas where “felt’ reports have been lodged in their areas.
