Early Morning Quake Shakes Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula
It was an early wake-up call that no one had set an alarm for. At exactly 4:39am this Thursday, a magnitude 3.2 earthquake struck Main Ridge on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, rattling hundreds of people from their sleep. The epicentre, about 10 kilometres deep, was located near Red Hill. Even though it was relatively small by earthquake standards, it was strong enough to be felt far beyond the peninsula — with reports coming in from as far away as Geelong.
For some locals, the quake started with a sound rather than a shake. John, a resident of Main Ridge, described it as a loud gunshot followed moments later by the rumble of his house and the clinking of crockery in the cupboards. Over in Rye, one man told radio station 3AW that it was “a snap, then a rumble” lasting five to ten seconds. From the Dandenong Ranges, Emerald local Trevor Budge recognised the sensation instantly — a low-level tremor he’d felt before.
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More than 500 people reported the quake to Geoscience Australia. Their seismographs picked up the tremor not only across Victoria but as far afield as eastern South Australia, outback New South Wales, and even Hobart in Tasmania. Senior seismologist Dr Jonathan Griffin explained that smaller, shallower quakes often produce noises similar to thunder or the rumble of a truck because seismic waves can transform into sound waves when they reach the surface.
While the shake was widespread, experts have reassured that earthquakes of this magnitude rarely cause damage. Seismology Research Centre chief scientist Adam Pascale noted that damage typically occurs at magnitude 4 or higher. Still, the Mornington Peninsula sits on a fault line, making occasional tremors a known, if infrequent, part of life there. The area’s most significant quake in living memory was off Flinders in 1971, with smaller but notable ones recorded in the late 1990s.
The incident comes amid a period of heightened seismic activity in Victoria since the magnitude 5.9 earthquake of September 2021, which caused building damage in Melbourne and was felt across south-eastern Australia. That quake was followed by a magnitude 3.8 tremor near Sunbury in May 2023 — the largest within metropolitan Melbourne in over a century — and a magnitude 4.6 quake near Mount Baw Baw in June 2023 that over 10,000 people felt.
Although Thursday morning’s quake left no damage or injuries — Ambulance Victoria confirmed they received no calls related to it — it left plenty of sleepy residents with a sudden shot of adrenaline. For many, it was just another reminder that even in a relatively stable part of the world, the earth beneath our feet is never entirely still.
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