Mini earthquake or major military explosion?
Paging Geoscience Australia - did we just get another earthquake, or are the military getting a little crazy out here?
Townsville
Don't miss out on the headlines from Townsville. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Paging Geoscience Australia - did we just get another earthquake, or are the military getting a little crazy out here?
Townsville residents took to their phones in droves around 9.40am to report “two bangs” and “shaking” today, Thursday May 15.
In Kelso someone felt the ground shake, and in Burdell someone’s “dog went off first and then the front door rattled”.
Someone in Bohle said they “thought someone was shaking our caravan”, it shook windows in Mount Low.
Annandale felt it, Douglas, Cranbrook and even Condon felt it.
Kelso residents also reported feeling a second ‘quake’ around 10.15am.
A Rosslea local reported they “didn’t feel a thing” but “heard the planes going over”.
Geoscience Australia said they received multiple ‘felt’ reports from Townsville around 9.48am, from people self-reporting the shake.
“We identified seismic signals near Townsville, but with insufficient data from publication to the Earthquakes@GA website,” a spokesperson said.
JCU seismologist Dr Lauren Waszek said that no readings above typical day-to-day activity were detected on her desktop seismometer on JCU’s Bebegu Yumba campus in Douglas.
To translate: Geoscience Australia’s instruments picked up a very faint reading, so small if it was an earthquake it’s not even worth reporting, and it could likely have been a false reading from military activity.
It just so happens the military started up a 3000-soldier combat training exercise three days ago.
The military exercise - called ‘Exercise Black Dagger’ - will run for seven weeks, to June 25.
The RAAF base in Townsville is hosting the exercise, causing an increase in aircraft flying around Townsville and live-fire operations at the Townsville Field Training Area.
The Air Force has promised residents most military plans will be flying during the weekdays and in only “short night flying windows”.
The exercise includes both Australian crews and those from allied nations.
The exercise is also utalising a number of “non-defence training areas” up near Ingham and Halifax.
More Coverage
Originally published as Mini earthquake or major military explosion?
Join the conversation
Traffic diverted as vehicle knocks out Condon traffic lights
Traffic is blocked after a motorist took out a set of traffic lights in Condon, while a man has been hurt by a cow in Basalt, emergency services say.
Read more
Cost of living crisis: Gap between regional and urban areas widening
With more North Queenslanders than ever struggling to put food on the table, a new distribution centre is set to provide immediate assistance to more than 2000 families across Townsville and beyond.
Read more