An Australian National University (ANU) led team will install a network of 25 seismometers in Western Australia to record tremors caused by local and distant earthquakes.
This region experiences some of the highest levels of earthquake activity in Australia, the most recent being a magnitude 4.6 earthquake that occurred on the August 13.
The network will be placed across ‘an area south of Morawa and north of Bridgetown, extending from the Indian Ocean coast as far east as Hyden.’
The Australian Research Council will provide $440,000 for the three-year-long project, while the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety will contribute $240,000.
Executive director geological survey and resource strategy Jeff Haworth said, “The data from this new project in southern WA will be important in determining prospectivity for mineral resources and will also assist in hazard management.”
“The nature of earthquake behaviour in this seismically active region is largely unknown, even after more than 50 years since the devastating magnitude 6.5 earthquake at Meckering.”
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake near Broome occurred on July 14, producing the largest release of seismic energy ever recorded in an Australian earthquake.
More than 40 seismometers have been temporarily installed in the Pilbara and the Kimberley region, close to the epicentre of the Broome earthquake.