Earth tremor fears allayed

By Danielle Galvin
SEISMOLOGISTS at Geoscience Australia are allaying fears of residents in the outer south-east caused by recent earth tremors.
Last Tuesday, a 4.4 magnitude quake hit Korumburra and rocked nearby Pakenham and surrounds.
In the days since the quake, a number of smaller aftershocks have shaken residents across Melbourne.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, a 2.8 aftershock was recorded by Geoscience Australia. Just hours before, a 3.3 magnitude aftershock was felt in Korumburra.
“We can’t predict how long the aftershocks will last for,” Emma Mathews, a seismologist from Geoscience Australia said.
“That’s why we’ve put in these aftershock temporary recorders which help us to improve our knowledge about the distribution of earthquakes in Australia,” she said.
In March and April 2009, Korumburra residents were shaken by a series of tremors. A few weeks after the quake, more than 200 aftershocks were recorded.
“Australia has an intraplate region inside the tectonic plate. When stress builds up in the continental crust, that’s when we have a release and we experience tremors,” Ms Matthews said.
But seismologists are warning residents not to panic.
“I would hope that residents are growing accustomed to the tremors, rather than being scared by them. Australia is stable in terms of geological activity.”
Ms Matthews helped install the aftershock recorders.
“I spoke to landowners in West Gippsland, some felt the tremor and others didn’t. I spoke to one gentleman who thought he had new cracks in his house,” she said.
“We don’t just do research for the sake of it. We research to help us create earthquake hazard maps to build safer communities,” Ms Matthews explained.