Residents across South Australia were jolted awake this morning after a significant magnitude-4.9 earthquake struck off the coast, south of Adelaide.
The tremor, which occurred at approximately 7:50 am at a depth of 10 kilometres, was widely felt across the region, triggering over 700 “felt reports” to Geoscience Australia within the first hour. Reports of rattling windows, vibrating floors, and shaking furniture flooded in from as far north as Gawler, throughout the Adelaide metropolitan area, and down to Beachport in the south-east.
Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate confirmed the epicentre was located about 100 kilometres offshore, between Kangaroo Island and the south-east coast. While the quake was strong enough to cause widespread alarm, Mr. Bathgate reassured the public that there is no tsunami risk.
“Earthquakes offshore are always a concern that they could generate a tsunami, but generally they have to be significantly larger than this one,” Mr. Bathgate said, noting that this event was the result of tectonic movement as the Australian continent drifts north at a rate of roughly seven centimetres per year.
Personal accounts of the event varied from subtle vibrations to distinct shaking. Kate, a resident of Reynella in Adelaide’s south, described her morning being interrupted when her bed moved and her coffee spilled. Others reported more structural disturbances. Annie, living in an apartment in Glenside, said she felt four distinct side-to-side shakes, while a Goolwa resident noted that their home felt like it was shuddering, accompanied by a sound described as “several motorbikes starting up at once.”
In the state’s south-east, the experience was similarly jarring. Cape Jaffa local Mark Ireland was eating breakfast when his floor began to rumble. “I literally just thought it was some big heavy machinery going past, but it was probably a little more intense than that,” he said. While many residents reported loose items rattling on benchtops, there have been no early reports of significant structural damage.
This morning’s tremor comes during a particularly active period for seismic activity in the region. It follows a magnitude-2.8 earthquake in the Barossa Valley just over a week ago, as well as a series of recent quakes in neighbouring Victoria.
Mr. Bathgate acknowledged that while today’s event was significant for the area, it sits within the scope of typical Australian seismic activity, where roughly five to six magnitude-5 quakes occur annually. However, he warned residents that aftershocks are a distinct possibility following a quake of this size and encouraged those in the affected regions to remain vigilant.
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