Powerful earthquake shakes popular tourist place in Australia: ‘Our house started shaking’
- Earthquake detected in Broome
- Locals say their cabinets were shaking
A strong earthquake has been recorded off the coast of Broome, in the far north of Western Australia.
The magnitude 4.9 quake was detected just after 7 p.m. (AEST) on Monday, about 200 kilometers offshore, west of the popular tourist resort, at a depth of 10 kilometers.
Some residents said they felt their cabinets vibrate and saw their houseplants move — despite no breeze.
The earthquake was caused by a magnitude 4.9 submarine quake 200 km from Broome
Broome is a popular tourist town with its 22km Cable Beach where tourists can ride camels (pictured)
One said it lasted nearly five minutes, while another claimed ornaments moved on their mantelpiece.
“The whole house and windows were shaking,” said Josh Osgood.
Professor Phil Cummins, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, told this masthead it was a ‘really shallow earthquake’.
“It’s had 114 reports, which means at least 114 people have felt it – all the way from Port Headland to Broome, right along that coast,” he said.
Prof Cummins said he believed any report of damage would be ‘extremely unlikely’.
“It’s not big enough and it’s also offshore, so the closest, so the closest place it could cause damage would be over 100 km from the quake and it thinks it’s unlikely that there will be any damage at that distance.” will be,” he said.
“There’s a small chance that an earthquake of this magnitude could trigger a submarine landslide — a landslide under the ocean — and that can sometimes affect pipelines or communications cables, but I think it’s unlikely.”
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat from the quake.
“Earthquakes felt in Broome at about 5:02 PM WST this afternoon due to a magnitude 4.9 submarine earthquake off the coast about 125 miles from Broome,” the Bureau tweeted.
Local residents of Broome took to social media to report the quake, with one suggesting her glasses were shaking in her closet (pictured)
‘No tsunami threat off WA west coast including Broome.’
Prof Cummins encouraged residents who felt the quake to report it Geoscience Australia website.
“Our instruments tell us something about the physical magnitude of the earthquake, but we’d like to get information about what kind of tremors were felt, because that really helps us refine our predictions about what future earthquakes might do,” he said.
in 2019 Broome experienced Australia’s largest ever recorded earthquake when a magnitude 6.6 undersea earthquake struck between the town and Port Headland.
It matched the magnitude of an earthquake in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory in 1988.
At the time, GeoScience Australia’s seismologist Dan Connolly on duty said the massive quake was a “rare event” and was “felt as far as Darwin and as far as Perth.”
Facebook page Broome Weather Group jokingly referenced the range of natural events in the area.
“Cyclone, Dry season, Earthquake, Eclipse….. What’s next?” the page posted.
One user commented: ‘The recording!’