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The State Emergency Service was called to assist residents of Muswellbrook where some homes and businesses were damaged, but there were no reports of serious injuries.
Locals said on Friday that some buildings in Muswellbrook’s central business district had broken windows, collapsed chimneys and goods strewn across shelves.
The quake was centred in Denman, south of Muswellbrook, and was felt across a wide area from southern Sydney to Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast.
Senior seismologist Hadi Ghasemi said about 2400 people contacted Geoscience Australia to report they felt the quake, which struck at 12.01pm on Friday.
“That’s a very large number,” he said. “The earthquake itself was quite large and at a depth of 10 kilometres it’s quite shallow, so it’s not surprising that it was felt widely.”
Ghasemi said the fault lines are located near the earthquake’s epicenter and were probably caused by stress as the Australian continental plate slowly moves northeast at a rate of about seven centimeters per year.
The earthquake’s epicentre was a few kilometres west of Lake Liddell, where the federal Coalition plans to build a nuclear power station if elected.
Nuclear facilities are designed to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 4.8 or greater, according to research by the World Nuclear Association and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation for the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor south of Sydney. However, reinforcing nuclear facilities to withstand large earthquakes increases the overall cost of building a nuclear facility.
The quake’s epicenter was also near four large coal mines, which use explosives that could cause minor seismic impacts. Coal mines are known to trigger larger earthquakes, but Ghasemi said that was unlikely on Friday.
The decommissioned Liddell coal-fired power station would be converted to house a nuclear reactor under the Coalition’s plan.Credit: Jenny Barrett
“It’s well known that mines can cause earthquakes, but looking at the seismic activity in the area, there are natural fault lines and a history of earthquakes,” he said.
“My view is that given the size and depth of this earthquake, it is unlikely to be mining related.”
The earthquake occurred about five kilometers underground – relatively shallow for an earthquake of this size.
It was the largest earthquake to hit the region in more than two decades. The 1989 Newcastle earthquake measured 5.6, killed 13 people and caused widespread damage to the city centre.
Following the earthquake, workers at BHP Billiton’s Mount Arthur coal mine, located directly above the epicentre, carried out a planned mine blast on Friday afternoon.
In collaboration with Michaela Whitbourn
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