One of Australia’s two active volcanoes has erupted, with stunning satellite images emerging of lava flowing down the side.
Big Ben, also known as Mawson Peak, on Heard Island in the southern Indian Ocean, was captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Thursday, May 25.
The 20 km wide volcano is located in the center of the island, about 4,000 km southwest of Western Australia.
Weather zone said there appears to have been a “flurry of small eruptions” over the past 18 months.
There are no active volcanoes on the Australian mainland.
Big Ben, one of two active volcanoes in Australia, has erupted (pictured)
The 20 km wide volcano is located in the center of Heard Island, about 4,000 km southwest of Western Australia
The other active volcano on Australian territory is on McDonald Island, which lies in the same stretch of sea.
The Big Ben eruption followed a magnitude 3.8 earthquake in Melbourne on Sunday night, which was felt as far away as Tasmania, NSW, South Australia and the ACT.
It hit the outskirts of the city, with tens of thousands of people awakened by rattling walls and windows.
The earthquake occurred at 11:41 pm near Sunbury, 36 km northwest of the CBD, with a depth of 3 km.
It is believed to be the largest earthquake to hit the area in over 120 years, with cameras in a radio station capturing the moment live on the air.
The quake struck at about 11:41 p.m. on Sunday with an estimated magnitude of 3.8 on the Richter scale near Sunbury, 22 miles (36 km) northwest of the city
Geoscience Australia received more than 25,000 reports of the quake stretching from Bendigo and Albury in the north to Hobart in the south.
Sunbury resident Corey Lainez said he felt “a really big, violent jolt.”
“I thought a car or truck had hit the house and before I could even get up the dogs were running around the house barking,” he said.
Residents of the city said they also felt the tremor, with some reporting that their windows and walls were shaking.
Dr. Dee Ninis, an earthquake geologist, said it was ‘widely felt throughout Melbourne’.
The emergency service warned residents to be on the lookout for aftershocks and to “drop, take cover and hold on” if they experienced one.
Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the Seismology Research Center, said the earthquake “got him out of bed.”
“There may be some minor damage in the epicenter,” he said.
Mr Pascale said he thought it was the largest earthquake since 1902 in the Melbourne metropolitan area.
SEN 1116 radio presenter Damian Watson experienced the quake while presenting live on air.
His microphone vibrated as a song played. “We experienced a tremor in the studio, I’m not sure if you’re home.
“It felt like some kind of earthquake,” he told his audience.
Residents flocked to social media to share their experience of the quake.
Julia Steel’s wall in Carlton North, Melbourne’s inner city, cracked as a result of the earthquake
A Sunbury resident said the quake was so strong it left a crack in the wall of his kitchen.
A shocked Twitter user said he was “woken up” by the quake. ‘The whole house was shaking! he said.
‘My phone alerted me with safety information, shook up got up to check on my family, alhamdulillah everything ok!
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Melbourne earthquake felt like a massive explosion.’
This map shows how far and wide the Melbourne earthquake has been felt