Earthquake strikes Melbourne sparking confusion: ‘Loud, explosion-like sound’
- Magnitude 2.3 quake struck city’s east
- Victoria rocked by massive quake in Sept, 2021
Melbourne was shaken by a small earthquake on Tuesday morning – with authorities picking up a 2.3 magnitude quake in the city’s eastern suburbs.
The earthquake hit at 11.15am on Tuesday near Ferntree Gully, with a depth of about 4km.
More than 100 residents reported feeling the quake to Geoscience Australia, with some residents questioning if they were imagining the ground beneath them shake.
‘Anyone else in Melbourne feel the earthquake a short time ago?’ one resident asked on Twitter.
‘WAS THAT AN EARTHQUAKE?’ asked another.
The earthquake hit at about 11.15am on Tuesday near Ferntree Gully in Melbourne’s east
‘It was so quick it could’ve been thunder but I swear the roof shook’.
Earthquake monitoring organisation, the Seismology Research Centre, said the quake was detected not far from the Dandenong Ranges National Park.
A resident in Montrose, east of the city, reported feeling ‘rumbling, rattling and a loud explosion-like sound.’
A Belgrave local said ‘it was so small I thought it was just a truck being unloaded.’
The Bureau of Meteorology said there is no tsunami threat to Australia.
In September, 2021, Victoria was rocked by a record-breaking 5.8 magnitude earthquake.
Pictures have emerged of a Betty’s Burgers restaurant partially collapsed on Chapel St in Melbourne’s inner-city after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in September, 2021
The shallow quake hit near the small town of Mansfield, 110 miles north-east of Melbourne, and was one of the largest to hit Australia in decades. It was six miles deep, according to Geoscience Australia.
That earthquake, felt as far away as Sydney and Tasmania, shook buildings and knocked down walls as residents said it sounded like a ‘jet engine’.
It was followed by two 4.0 and 3.1 magnitude aftershocks 18 and 39 minutes later – both within 10km of the original tremors.
In a popular shopping area around Melbourne’s Chapel Street, masonry debris tumbled from buildings and littered the roads.
Bricks and rubble surrounded Bettys Burgers fast food restaurant and large sheets of metal hung off the restaurant awning.
Chapel Street General Manager Chrissie Maus said about 60 traders in the popular shopping district had been affected by the earthquake – largely through loss of power or building damage.
The burger chain said in a statement that there was no-one inside the building at the time and all staff were safe.
Emergency and rescue officials examine a damaged building in the popular shopping Chapel Street in Melbourne following the earthquake in September, 2021
