Coral Sea 2.9 magnitude earthquake off Townsville, Bowen

Did you feel a little disturbed last night? Monitoring systems picked up an earthquake around 2am. See where it hit.

Earthquake monitoring systems picked up a magnitude 2.9 earthquake in the Coral Sea last night, directly off the Townsville coast.

The quake originated from a point only 10km underground and struck at 2.09am.

Two Townsville monitoring stations picked up the aftershocks two minutes later.

Bowen and Cairns also registered the aftershocks.

Bowen was the closest affected community, only 405km from the offshore earthquake.

Townsville was the next closest, 509km away from the origin point.

The origin point of the 2.9 magnitude earthquake which struck at 2am this morning. The yellow circle marks Townsville.

Earthquake seismograms study two types of waves: the primary waves which travel fast and hit first, and the secondary waves which slower and only travel through solids.

Seismograms from stations that registered the quake. (Top to bottom) Bowen Hard Jump, Bowen Soft Jump, Townsville Hard Jump, Charters Towers, Cairns Hard Jump, Mount Surprise and Eidsvold/Bundaberg.

Certain animals, such as dogs, can feel primary waves before an earthquake hits the surface.

Humans can only feel primary waves once they reach the Earth’s crust.

The crust can be anywhere from 8kms deep, to 80kms.

Read about past local earthquakes, including a magnitude 5.2 quake near Ayr, a 3.5 off Bowen and a 4.3 off Cairns.

Originally published as Coral Sea 2.9 magnitude earthquake off Townsville, Bowen