Are there fault lines in australia

In subduction zone areas, like Indonesia or Fiji, earthquakes occur to km deep. Those that are within 70 km of the surface are considered shallow, while those greater than km are deep.

Almost all Australian earthquakes have mechanisms with horizontal compression producing reverse or thrust faults. Under compression these faults produce uplift, so Australian earthquakes are more likely to be found under areas of rising topography Eastern Highlands, Flinders Ranges.

Because Australian earthquakes occur only in the top 20 km, one dimension of the rupture area is constrained. A typical site in Australia will be within 50 km of a magnitude 7 event every , years or so. In active areas like Japan, Philippines or California, earthquakes of magnitude 7 occur every few years. The activity in these places is restricted to a much smaller area than that of Australia, so a typical site may be within 50 km of a magnitude 7 event every years or so.

Low seismicity does not mean weak ground motion. It means that strong earthquake motion happens less often. Don't have an account? Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout. Large parts of Queensland and NSW remain on flood watch after another night of torrential rain. Best of shopping Premium Membership. In the know quiz.

Charis Chang. More from environment. Join the conversation. Aside from properly designing buildings, there are steps people can take to avoid injury during an earthquake. Victorian earthquake explained: why did it happen and why was the impact relatively mild?

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It wasn't that big in terms of magnitude, but because it occurred close to the city, it caused significant destruction and injury, and the death of 13 people.

Nine of those people were killed in the collapse of the Newcastle Workers' Club, which was due to have a concert that night with thousands of attendees. Even in high earthquake zones, there is no perfect tool to predict when an earthquake might occur.

Fault lines and historic events can help scientists identify likely sites of future earthquakes. But an earthquake could also occur in an unexpected location on an undiscovered fault. Quite a few of Australia's more active fault lines are close to major urban centres, particularly near Adelaide and Melbourne.

An earthquake at these locations could be catastrophic, and disrupt the lives and livelihoods of many Australians. These events are exceedingly rare, but that doesn't mean that they can't happen in our lifetime. Given we can't predict where the next large earthquake will hit, how prepared are we to cope if it was to occur in a heavily populated area of Australia?

Structural engineer Michael Griffith works on developing ways to make older buildings less susceptible to earthquake damage.

In , after the Newcastle earthquake, the Building Code of Australia introduced earthquake design requirements. This means that any modern construction should have quite a bit of inherent resistance in it. Many street fronts in our capital cities have two- to three-storey buildings with large ornate brick fronted facades. Many of the fatalities from the Christchurch earthquakes in were people who were outdoors and hit by falling masonry.

Dr Griffiths would like to see more work put into strengthening existing buildings, so that in the event of an earthquake, there is minimal damage and loss of life. If you do happen to find yourself in an earthquake like the one on Wednesday, Dr Allen has a few tips on what to do.