Rare earthquake in Australia spreads panic in Melbourne

An earthquake, which occurred only ten kilometers deep, surprised, Wednesday, September 22, the inhabitants of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, at 9 am local time (1 hour in Paris). It has been felt for hundreds of miles around. Rescue services have received calls for help as far as Dubbo, about 700 kilometers from the epicenter.

The United States Institute for Geological Studies (USGS) put the magnitude at 5.8, before revising it to 5.9. A magnitude 4 aftershock occurred shortly after the first tremor.

Scenes of panicked residents leaving homes have invaded social networks. Among them, Zume Phim, 33, owner of Melbourne’s Oppen cafe, rushed into the streets when the quake hit.

“The whole building was shaking. All the windows, the glass were shaking, like a wave of tremors ”, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “I had never experienced this. It was a little scary ”, he confides.

Expected aftershocks

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, responding from New York, insisted there were no casualties or significant damage. He nevertheless conceded the side “Very disturbing” earthquake for the population, in an area not used to tremors like Australia.

“Everything started to shake … Everyone was a little in shock”Parker Mayo, a 30-year-old cafe worker, told AFP, while images from the Chapel Street shopping area show bricks fallen to the ground.

“I was sitting at work at my desk… it took me a while to figure out what it was”, the mayor of Mansfield, near the quake’s epicenter, Mark Holcombe, said on ABC.

Large earthquakes are unusual in Southeast Australia, a fairly densely populated region. It is the biggest earthquake in south-eastern Australia in years, Mike Sandiford, a geologist at the University of Melbourne, told AFP.

An earthquake of this magnitude occurs every “Ten to twenty years in the south-east of Australia, the last was Thorpdale in 2012”, did he declare. “We had very large magnitudes six in the late 1800s, although the precise magnitudes are not well known.”, he stressed.

Australians should expect “Several hundred aftershocks, most not perceptible by humans, but probably ten will be felt”, warned the scientist, speculating on the “Billions of dollars in damage” what would the earthquake have caused “If it had happened in Melbourne”.