Chance of aftershocks including bigger quake after Tully tremor
In the wake of a minor but explosive sounding earthquake recorded near a small town in Far North Queensland, the national seismic agency has warned more powerful aftershocks are possible.
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A boiler exploding at the sugar mill, burglars, and traffic crashes were all initial explanations for what actually turned out to be rare seismic event in the Tully area on Tuesday.
A total of 66 reports were made to Geoscience Australia relating to the 2.1 magnitude quake which hit northwest of Tully at 8.02pm.
The epicentre was pinpointed in the Alcock State Forest about 2km north of Feluga at a depth of 10km, but the tremors were felt as far away as Innisfail to the north and Cardwell to the south.
The quake was also felt in Mission Beach and by residents of Wangan, 50kms from the epicentre.
Retired banana farmer Peter Zorzetto described a loud bang followed by a minor tremor that lasted but a few moments.
“Nothing fell off and I felt a slight tremble,” he said.
“It happened at eight o’clock, I was watching TV and I went to check on my missus because she’d been falling out of bed and I said ‘did you hear that thump?’
“Someone thought it was something from the sugar mill because it’s about to start up, but it was not that at all.
“I knew straight away that it would be an earthquake because I have experienced that before in Mission Beach.”
Growing up and living in Tully his entire life, David Bolton said he had never before felt an earthquake in the area.
“I’ve lived here 48 years and never heard of one,” he said.
“There was a big bang and then a shake, some people thought the mill had blown up a boiler or something.”
According to Geoscience Australia records, little major seismic activity has been recorded between the Torres Strait and Rockhampton in the past 10 years with the notable exception of the 5.8 magnitude earthquake recorded 70km off the coast of Bowen in 2016.
The Bowen earthquake was the largest seismic incident recorded in the Sunshine State for more than 20 years.
Joan Mercer said without warning she heard a loud cracking sound and for a moment she thought a car had crashed into her house.
“Just out of the blue there was a sound like an explosion,” she said.
“And then it was a bit of a rumble sort of thing like a faint thunder and the house actually shook.
“We decided in the end that there must be an explosion at the mill and found out later it was an earthquake.”
Following the Tully event at about 9.52pm on Tuesday a much larger 5.7 magnitude quake was recorded off the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia.
SEISMIC EXPERT ON THE QUAKE
In the wake of a minor but explosive sounding earthquake recorded near Tully, the national seismic agency has stated more powerful aftershocks are possible in the coming days.
The rare magnitude 2.1 earthquake literally rattled the Far North sugar town on Tuesday night.
Senior seismologist with Geoscience Australia Jonathan Griffin said historically the Far North was a relatively quiet area in terms of seismic activity but earthquakes can happen anywhere.
“(This one) was quite close to Tully and happening in the evening when you might just be sitting around watching TV probably contributed to it being quite widely felt,” he said.
“We also received reports of hearing a loud bang like an explosion as well, which typically happens when earthquakes are quite shallow.
“The seismic waves and the ground shaking reaches the surface of the earth and it gets converted into sound waves and so people sometimes hear these smaller earthquakes as much as feel them.
“There was some shaking, but the noise is certainly a significant thing that made people sit up and take notice.
“Any earthquake can generate aftershocks, small earthquakes happening afterwards and occasionally you get a bigger one happening as well.
“It’s always possible once you’ve had one earthquake there’s a slightly higher chance that you’ll get more earthquakes following it, they tend to be smaller but occasionally you get one that’s bigger as well.”
In the last 10 years there have only been 10 other earthquakes recorded within a 100km radius of the Tully quake.
The largest was a magnitude 3.1 which was offshore of Innisfail in 2017 and in 1990 there was a 4.3 magnitude quake also recorded off the coast of Innisfail.
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