Victoria earthquake: shaking felt as far away as Melbourne but authorities say no damage reported
The 4.3 magnitude quake hit Leongatha in Gippsland, with shaking reported in Sunbury and Wilson’s Promontory
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Thousands of Victorians have been woken by an early morning earthquake that shook large parts of the state.
The 4.3 magnitude quake hit near Leongatha in the state’s Gippsland region, 135km south-east of Melbourne, at 12.49am today.
The tremors were felt as far north as Sunbury, 38km northwest of Melbourne, to Wilson’s Promontory national park in the south, government agency Geoscience Australia said.
There was no threat of a tsunami in the aftermath of the quake, the Bureau of Meteorology reported.
More than 4,900 people reported feeling the quake, which had a depth of 8km at its epicentre in the town of Meeniyan.
There were about 10,000 quakes of about this magnitude in the world every year.
Just 10 hours earlier, Melbourne’s namesake on the other side of the world also felt a similar quake.
According to the US Geological Survey, there was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake, at a depth of 10km, just off the coast of Melbourne, Florida.
02/08 | Did anyone feel the Earthquake last night? A 4.0 magnitude Earthquake was reported well offshore of the Brevard County coast 101.4 mi E of Cape Canaveral at 10:48 PM Wednesday. For more information check out https://t.co/0qFKBZjHuG. #FL pic.twitter.com/7mo5wCC1t3
— NWS Melbourne (@NWSMelbourne) February 8, 2024The Victorian quake was the biggest to hit the state since a 5.0 magnitude earthquake rattled residents in the south-west in October, the Seismology Research Centre’s chief scientist Adam Pascale said.
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“This is certainly getting to the magnitude where you expect some minor damage to appear but we haven’t heard any reports,” Pascale told 3AW.
“The seismologist said the state has experienced more earthquakes in the past couple of years than in the decade or two before.
“It’s still within the normal range of activity for our region in the world,” he said.
The largest earthquake in Victoria’s history with a magnitude of 5.9 occurred in 2019, resulting in thousands of insurance claims for damages with tremors reaching as far away as Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide.
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