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Title: Tiny WA town hit by 100 earthquakes Post by: Lovelee on March 08, 2009, 02:53:00 pm The Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Beacon has been hit by about 100 earthquakes over the past month. Geoscience Australia says the biggest measured almost five on the richer scale, while others were too small to record. The small town of Beacon is about 300 kilometres north-east of Perth. Seismologists say the phenomenon, known as an earthquake swarm, is highly unusual, but has been moving through the wheatbelt for the past decade. Phil Cummins from Geoscience Australia says he's not aware of it happening like that anywhere else in the world. "We don't know why they started up a month ago and we expect that you know sooner or later they will die out and that whole process isn't that well understood," he said. Mr Cummins says he and other seismologists do not know if the earthquake swarm is likely to lead to a more disastrous event. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/08/2510366.htm |