Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Western Australian town hit by aftershock from 1968 earthquake. An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale has struck Meckering - one of a long series of aftershocks from a massive quake which flattened the West Australian wheatbelt town 35 years ago.
Seismologists said the quake, which caused no major structural damage, was part of a long, slow tail of "aftershock sequences" arising from the devastating 6.78 quake in Meckering in 1968. [...]
"Last night's earthquake was the same area as the very large magnitude 6.78 earthquake in 1968 which did a great deal of damage to the town of Meckering," Dr Leonard said.
"That quake induced a weak area of the crust and the strain is still being released.
"What happened last night is various parts of that fault scarp are slowly being relieved of excess stress."
They reckon aftershocks could be felt for up to twenty more years. Astonishing. I didn't know the aftershocks from quakes could last for decades...
posted by James Russell |
4:19 PM
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