Earthquakes in the Canberra Region - Geoscience Australia

Earthquakes in the Canberra Regionlittle aftershock immediately following the main shock. In Conder, it was heard as a quickboom and the “walls vibrated and thudded”.On 4 October 2003 at 8.25 am local time, a magnitude ML 1.4 earthquake in Yarralumlawas felt by many residents in the inner southern suburbs of Canberra. In Yarralumla andDeakin it gave the impression of a small explosion and windows rattled. In Garran it wasexperienced as a sharp, single shake accompanied by quite a loud noise like a blast.However, at one locality in Norman Street, Deakin, the earthquake was experienced morespectacularly. The resident reported a “massive” explosion during which the whole houseshook, windows rattled violently, the front door opened, and the TV, small tables andornaments all moved. Even the dogs stopped barking for a minute.Earthquakes in the Sutton area, January 1996 – November 2007Small earthquakes in the vicinity of Sutton are not uncommon, and because of increasedactivity (an “earthquake swarm”) during this period, Sutton earthquakes are discussedseparately in this section. However, for the first part of the decade, activity was not high.In 1996, two earthquakes occurred in the Sutton area.On 11 April 1996 at 9.45 am local time, a magnitude 1.7 earthquake, 7 km west of Suttonand about 14 km NNE of the Canberra GPO, was heard near the epicentre as a loudexplosion. It was also heard at Deakin.The second earthquake happened at 6.16 am local time on 21 June 1996 and had amagnitude of 1.0. Its epicentre was 4 km east of Sutton and 20 km northeast of theCanberra GPO. It probably was too small and too early in the morning for residents tohave felt it, and no reports were received.Geoscience Australia’s earthquake database has records of only one other Suttonearthquake before the start of the swarm activity. It was a magnitude ML 2.0 event at 2.06am local time on 22 October 1997. It was not reported felt, presumbly because peoplewere asleep.The Sutton earthquake swarm started in September 2001 and continued until December2002. The earthquake database has records of 21 earthquakes with magnitudes in therange ML 1.2 - 2.5 in the vicinity of Sutton, NSW, during this period. Ten of these werereported heard/felt, the first being at 2.23 am local time on 28 December 2001, when aresident of Bywong, in Harriot Road off Macs Reef Road, heard a loud bang like anexplosion and her house rattled. She said that this magnitude ML 1.9 earthquake wokeher neighbour.The highest level of seismic activity in the Sutton area during 2001-2002 was in January –February 2002 when 12 earthquakes were recorded by Geoscience Australia’sseismographs. Seven of those in the earthquake database, including one as small asmagnitude ML 1.2, were reported heard/felt in Bywong. In addition, five not in thedatabase were reported heard/felt by a family in Newington Road, off Macs Reef Road,Bywong - two on January 17th, one on the 23rd, one on the 25th and one on the 29th. The17