An earthquake has hit the West Australian Goldfield towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder, damaging hotels, schools and other buildings. The magnitude 5.0 quake hit at 8.15am (WST) today prompting evacuations from some buildings and Kalgoorlie’s super pit.

While there are no reports of serious injuries, a man and a woman have reportedly been taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Authorities are warning residents to prepare for aftershocks.

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Kevin McCue is President of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society, Adjunct Professor at CQUniversity and Director of the Australian Seismological Centre

“The Kalgoorlie/Coolgardie area in WA has suffered frequent earthquakes since mining commenced there in the 1890s. All of these events have been attributed to stress relief associated with underground mining so the earthquake hazard assessment for the region is rated low on current maps even though WA has the largest area of relatively high earthquake risk in Australia.

It remains to be seen whether old mine workings have collapsed dramatically causing or contributing to this ‘earthquake’. There is no reason to connect this earthquake with last Friday night’s earthquake near Adelaide, they are too far apart.

The damage to schools is unforgivable, governments have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for all residents but particularly school children and WA state governments, since the wake-up call of the 1968 Meckering earthquake, have shown a great reluctance to be involved in monitoring earthquakes, assessing earthquake hazard or ameliorating the earthquake risk. The old Public Works Department of WA was abolished years ago leaving the WA government without in-house earthquake engineering expertise. Perhaps it is time this decision was reversed.

There is a high risk of aftershocks, perhaps up to magnitude 4.2 or so.”

Associate Professor Tom Blenkinsop is from the School of Earth and Environmental Science at James Cook University in Townsville

“Although Kalgoorlie is not a zone of active seismicity, there have been other significant earthquakes in Western Australia in the past (for example the Meckering event in 1968 with a magnitude of nearly 7) and there will be more in the future.

Parts of the Australian continent are affected by stresses from as far away as the Himalayan mountains and transmitted through the strong outer layers of the Earth. From time to time (luckily infrequently compared to active plate boundaries such as Sumatra), these stresses cause rock failure and earthquakes, even in areas without mining activity. Aftershocks can be expected, but these will decrease in frequency and magnitude with time. Prediction of these unusual earthquakes in continental interiors is even more difficult than the more common plate boundary events. But they will occur, and pose a finite risk. More studies are need to evaluate the risk and hazard associated with these events.”

Vic Dent is an Honorary Research Associate in geology at University of Western Australia and former seismologist with Geoscience Australia.

“Geoscience Australia and the USGS made preliminary locations of this earthquake, but the Australian centre for Geomechanics on Perth already had instruments in the area, monitoring the background activity, and have made an accurate location of the earthquake – this has since been passed on to Geoscience Australia.

The AGC location puts the earthquake under South Boulder, which explains why the damage seems to be concentrated there. The earthquake was not 10 – 20 km or more from Kalgoorlie as initially reported

The event is very close to the super pit. Small aftershocks have been recorded by the AGC equipment.

The magnitude estimates of 5 or just over may be an over-estimate. based on the ACG readings, although their equipment is not as well calibrated as the GA equipment

The earthquake is more likely to have some connection to the nearness of the super-pit, than the recent Adelaide earthquake

A “group seismic image” from a network I run, which includes the closest station to the earthquake ( Cheetham st Kalgoorlie, part of the ACG network) is attached [here - or see below]“

Brian Gaull is a retired consultant seismologist based in WA.

“Looking at the proximity of the epicentre to the town of Boulder where most of the previous seismicity has been located, one would be tempted to say it was a rock-burst. But until I see the actual seismograms I would have to reserve my judgment. Going by the magnitude, it looks to be at the upper end for mining induced blasts but cannot still rule it out. The other thing the map shows is that there are many other events in the region which cannot be rock bursts so my position has been for a long time that we do have tectonic events in this region as well. It was always going to be a chance of something this size coming along anywhere in Australia really; that is the current position of most seismologists today. The other question is whether it was related to the small event in the ranges near Adelaide and my answer to that is almost certainly not.”