Where was the worst earthquake?

Answer 1

Australia does not have many major earthquakes, but it has dozen of minor earthquakes every year which are not felt by the average person because they occur so far underground.

Times and places where significant earthquakes have occurred in Australia are few, but they include:

• An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit Meeberrie, Western Australia, on 29 April 1941. It left massive cracks in all the walls of Meeberrie homestead.
• On 14 October 1968, the town of Meckering, Western Australia, was hit by an earthquake which registered 6.9 on the Richter scale. No-one was killed, but an estimated $2.2 million worth of damage was caused, and 17 people injured.
• On 22 January 1988, three large earthquakes were felt in Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. The smallest occurred at 10:06am and registered 6.3 on the Richter Scale, whilst the largest occurred at 9:35pm, registering 6.7.
• Australia's worst earthquake disaster occurred on 28 December 1989 in Newcastle, NSW, when an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale hit, causing massive damage and thirteen deaths.

Answer 2

The most devastating earthquake in Australia was the one that hit Newcastle on 28 December 1989. The earthquake measured 5.6 on the Richter scale, and its effects were felt throughout central-eastern New South Wales. There were reports of damage to buildings in Scone, Gladstone and Sydney, which is 800km away. The shaking was even felt in tall buildings, in places over 5000km away.

Thirteen people were killed, and 35,000 homes, 147 schools and 3,000 other structures in the region collapsed. Most of the damage and deaths happened when the walls and floors of the Newcastle Workers Club collapsed. Originally, a US report on the earthquake suggested that the disaster was caused by stress resulting from 200 years of underground coal mining. Australian geoscientists disagreed with this claim, claiming that the Hunter Valley has been prone to minor earthquakes for years. Other evidence suggested that the hypocentre of the earthquake lay too deep underground - 12 kilometres - for it to have been caused by mining.

Australia's greatest magnitude earthquake to have occurred onshore was on 29 April 1941, when a 7.2 earthquake hit Meeberrie, a tiny township in the central west of Western Australia. No one was killed due to the town's isolation and minimal buildings, but the quake was recorded by seismographs as far away as Sydney, on the other side of the continent.

Answer 3

Australia does not have many major earthquakes, but it has dozen of minor earthquakes every year which are not felt by the average person because they occur so far underground.

Times and places where significant earthquakes have occurred in Australia are few, but they include:

• An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit Meeberrie, Western Australia, on 29 April 1941. It left massive cracks in all the walls of Meeberrie homestead.
• On 14 October 1968, the town of Meckering, Western Australia, was hit by an earthquake which registered 6.9 on the Richter scale. No-one was killed, but an estimated $2.2 million worth of damage was caused, and 17 people injured.
• On 22 January 1988, three large earthquakes were felt in Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. The smallest occurred at 10:06am and registered 6.3 on the Richter Scale, whilst the largest occurred at 9:35pm, registering 6.7.
• Australia's worst earthquake disaster occurred on 28 December 1989 in Newcastle, NSW, when an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale hit, causing massive damage and thirteen deaths.

Answer 4

The earthquake in Southern Ocean North of Macquire Island in 2004 is the biggest earthquake reported in Australia, with a magnitude of 8.1.

Answer 5

The "worst" earthquake in modern history occurred on May 22, 1960, in Valdivia, Chile. It measured 9.5 on the Richter scale, the largest recorded earthquake in history.

Answer 6

The worst earthquake was the one in Chile