By Callum Ludwig
Woods Point was again the origin of a minor earthquake that shook Victoria in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday 7 August.
At about 3.48am, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck in the state forest near the Lazarini Spur Track with 2112 ‘felt’ reports coming in from across the state, including in Yarra Junction and Healesville.
The quake was relatively shallow, occurring at a depth of only 10km below the surface.
VICSES advises that minor damage may have occurred and encourages residents to stay safe by avoiding damaged buildings, roadways and bridges, fallen trees and powerlines.
Chief Scientist at the Seismology Research Centre Adam Pascale was another aftershock in the same sequence that started in September 2021.
“It is strange to think that aftershocks can still be happening three years later, but in geological time it’s just a blink in time,” he said.
“The stress on that fault had probably been building for thousands of years, so for it to settle back into a solid position to start building stress again without slipping is going to take years,”
“This is the third largest aftershock following the original magnitude 5.9, there was a 4.2 only minutes after the main shock, a 4.7 in late June 2023, and this 4.1 today.”
The Star Mail previously reported on the ‘blind’ fault line in the Woods Point area that was discovered by experts at The Australian National University (ANU) in 2023, about a year and a half following the magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit in September 2021.
Lead researcher and a seismologist at the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences Dr Sima Mousavi said at the time the research was published that ‘it is important to understand their location and behaviour and potential hazards in order to properly assess earthquake risk and take appropriate measures to protect communities and infrastructure.’
The Seismology Research Centre has seismic stations situated around Victoria, including one that was within 35km of the epicentre of the Woods Point earthquake and 20-30 stations within 100km of it.
The Seismology Research Centre posts a weekly earthquake map of Australia on their social media accounts of the same name for anyone interested or seeking information about earthquakes.
