Where is the most likely place in Australia to have an earthquake?

Answer 1

Although Australia is low risk country for earthquakes the highest risk areas are on the east coast from Newcastle in the north to just south of Melbourne apart from a very small area just east of Perth. Perth itself has about the same earthquake hazard as Sydney. Earthquakes can happen anywhere in the world but are most common on plate boundaries and Australia is not on a plate boundary.

There have been a number of earthquakes in Australia, but generally they do not cause major damage. Many of them are simply seismic activity many kilometres underground, which do not translate to ground-shaking events on the surface. Melbourne and southeastern Victoria, and the region around Canberra, for example, are hot-spots for deep seismic activity, but no earthquake in the area has caused death or significant destruction.

Although Australia is not on the edge of a plate, the continent experiences earthquakes because the Indo-Australian plate is being pushed north and is colliding with the Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific plates. This causes the build up of stress in the interior of the Indo-Australian plate which is released during earthquakes.

There has also been some seismic activity in Western Australia. The area roughly between Meckering (west of Perth) and Meebarrie (several hundred kilometres to the north) extending to the coastline in between saw activity of varying intensity during the 20th century.

Answer 2

Australia lies entirely within one tectonic plate, and is well distanced from the edges.

However, a review of all earthquakes measuring 5.0 or higher on the Richter scale shows that while these two regions in total had just over a third of all such earthquakes in the coutry (including two offshore 'quakes), there was a relatively even spread across the country. As well as this, they were relatively rare - since 1883, only 43 of them have been recorded, and none of them were above 7.2 on land, the majority being a 5-point or low 6-point. This shows that earthquales could be expected roughly the same anywhere in Australia, but if even odds were given, you should bet on Western Australia (12 out of 43, for 5.0< earthquakes)

Answer 3

The most severe earthquake in the history of Australia in terms of damage and deaths was the earthquake that struck Newcastle, Australia on 28 December 1989.

The Newcastle earthquake caused significant damage throughout the city. 35,000 homes, 147 schools and 3,000 other structures in the region collapsed. The most damage happened at the Newcastle Workers Club when walls and multiple floors collapsed, dropping 300 tonnes of concrete onto the ground-floor car park, killing 9 people.

Answer 4

there was no strong earthquake in Australia there were not even single once caught in Australia because its not even close to a tectonic boaundary hope it helped

Answer 5

Southwest corner of Western Australia is the most common area for earthquakes.