Did you feel it? Small earthquake sends ripples across Adelaide Hills

Adelaide Hills residents were woken to the rumblings of a small earthquake in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

At just after 2am a magnitude 2.7 earthquake was detected in the Adelaide Hills, northeast of Mount Barker near Nairne, according to Geoscience Australia.

Adelaide Hills residents were woken to the sound of an earthquake in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

At just after 2am a magnitude 2.7 tremor was detected in the Adelaide Hills, northeast of Mount Barker near Nairne, according to Geoscience Australia.

Hills residents reported being woken to shaking and rumbling at Blackfellows Creek, Kanmantoo and Hahndorf.

Management of the Hills tourist attraction The Big Rocking Horse, at Gumeracha, took to social media to report hearing the quake.

“Not even an earthquake could make Wal The Big Rocking Horse rock,” they posted.

“It was a rolling rumble sound and we didn’t feel the earth move.

“Checking on all our animals now to make sure they aren’t spooked.”

Seismology Research Centre chief scientist Adam Pascale told FIVEAA radio small quakes had been common over the past couple of years in the Adelaide Hills region.

(I’m) surprised it has been felt, it is pretty small, but it’s something that’s seemingly occurring almost every year around this time of year,” he said.

“The pattern shows the last couple of years we’ve had in sort of March, April, May around, roughly around this time.

“But it’s not really related to seasons, I think it’s just about that stress building up … the big ones started in 2022; there was a 3.7 there, and a 3.1 a bit later that month and then last year we had a, it was a 2.7 in the region, and there’s been sort of small ones popping off along the way. But this is one of the larger ones this morning.”

Mr Pascale said a big quake could be brewing.

“There’s been a magnitude six in South Australia in recent history ... it’s quite likely that there will be another large event sometime,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I can’t predict when these things but we know that we will see an event of magnitude five or six, probably in the next 50 or 100 years.”

More than 170 reports of the quake were lodged with Geoscience Australia but no damage has been reported.

It comes after a magnitude 2.7 earthquake at a 6km depth also was recorded on Tuesday morning at 12.30am with an epicentre near Croydon, east of Melbourne.

Adelaide is considered at risk of earthquakes as large as magnitude 7.0 and straddles several faults. These include the Para Fault, which runs from around Gawler, under Adelaide’s northern suburbs, under the CBD and out towards Glenelg, and the Eden-Burnside Fault under the eastern and southern suburbs.

Originally published as Did you feel it? Small earthquake sends ripples across Adelaide Hills