Australia Records Largest Earthquake In Over 120 Years

Melbourne, Australia, was slammed by a remarkable earthquake, the strongest to strike the city in almost a century, on Sunday, May 28.

According to government organization Geoscience Australia, preliminary data suggested that the 3.8-magnitude earthquake impacted the northwest suburb of Sunbury at a depth of 2 kilometres (1.24 miles) at 11:41 pm local time.

The earthquake was the biggest within 40 kilometres of Melbourne since a magnitude 4.5 tremor struck in 1902, according to Adam Pascale, chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre in Victoria.

“It woke me up! Probably 5-10 seconds of minor shaking. The adrenaline hasn’t dissipated yet…” Pascale said on Twitter.

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Geoscience Australia reported receiving more than 21,000 reports of the earthquake, with shockwaves felt as far away as Bendigo, which is located around 150 kilometres north of Melbourne, and as far south as Hobart on the island of Tasmania.

Melbourne, which has a population of 5.8 million, surpassed Sydney to become the most populated city in Australia in April, and many of its citizens awoke on Monday with a story to tell.

“Felt like a plane crashed next to my house or something,” one resident said, according to CNN affiliate 7News.

Another Melbourne resident tweeted, referring to a downtown skyscraper, “I’m on the 70th floor in the Eureka Tower and the entire building swayed a couple of metres,” CNN affiliate Sky News Australia said.
Someone claimed to have “run out of the house with a machete” while still in their pyjamas.

“Our old house sounded like it was getting broken into,” they added, according to Sky News Australia.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology stated on Twitter that the earthquake did not pose a tsunami hazard, despite a Facebook statement from the emergency services mentioning possible aftershocks.

The bulk of earthquakes happens around the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is noted for its high volcanic activity and where tectonic plates interact by pushing against each other, causing tremors.