The Cairns Post reported fish were seen jumping out of the water as the earthquake hit.Tremor in north Qld after small quakeUpdated: 08:50,
Wednesday March 16, 2011Geoscience Australia confirmed a magnitude 4.0 earthquake took place about 30km off Innisfail, south of Cairns, at 4.08pm (AEST) on Tuesday.
Residents to the north and south of Cairns reported feeling a tremor, but no damage was reported.
Cairns resident Kathy Brown said the sensation experienced by those in her office at Smithfield, north of the city, was similar to that caused by a passing heavy vehicle.
'I was just sitting here and I felt it through the floor and then my computer started to shake,' Ms Brown told AAP.
She said she was shocked to discover the shaking was the result of an earthquake.
'A couple of people who'd been through one before said: That was an earthquake'. But, I said: We don't get earthquakes in Cairns'.
'I wish it had been a passing truck. We're used to cyclones but we don't need any earthquakes.'
Geoscience Australia said residents at Gordonvale, south of the city, had reported mirrors and other items shaking, and said the tremors had been felt at Innisfail.
But, it said, the quake was too small to generate a tsunami, to the relief of locals in the region battered by Cyclone Yasi last month.
The Cairns Post reported fish were seen jumping out of the water as the earthquake hit.
Russell Heads resident Keith Fisher told the paper the quake lasted about four seconds.
'It sounded like distant thunder. There was a distant rumbling,' Mr Fisher said.
'I haven't heard anything like it before. It was very slight.'
Geoscience Australia duty seismologist Steve Tatham said that although earthquakes in Queensland were uncommon, three small events had been reported offshore in the Innisfail/Ingham area in the past decade.
'Queensland is generally pretty seismically quiet but this is not completely unheard of,' he told AAP.
Mr Tatham said intra-plate earthquakes happened across Australia fairly regularly but were usually very small.
He said there was no evidence to link the seismic activity to recent earthquakes in Japan and Christchurch, although some have theorised that large earthquakes could cause seismic instability elsewhere.
'There is an idea that that could be the case but we don't have any evidence to support it unequivocally.'
http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=589309&vId=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quake hits North QueenslandUpdated: 16:49, Saturday April 16, 2011
A 5.4 magnitude earthquake has shaken far north Queensland with a 5.3 magnitude aftershock hitting quake-devastated Christchurch just minutes later.
Geoscience Australia said the Queensland quake happened about 3.30pm (AEST) on Saturday some 180km from Townsville.
The quake was felt as far away as the Whitsundays off the central coast of Queensland and in the state's capital Brisbane, a Geoscience Australia spokesman told AAP.
'It's a shallow earthquake, that means it's close to the surface and potentially damaging,' he said.
'For this type of event we would definitely expect aftershocks ... and generally they are smaller than the original event.'
Townsville councillor Natalie Marr said there had been no immediate reports of damage.
But she told how her windows rattled and her young daughter leapt into her arms during the quake.
'It scared my daughter enough she jumped on the couch with me and my windows were rattling,' Ms Marr she told AAP.
'I haven't heard of any damage at the moment.
'We usually get SMS warnings if there is more danger and to stay inside and that hasn't happened.'
Ms Marr said she had been listening to the local radio for updates and had heard people as far south as Bowen calling the station saying they felt the quake.
'It's hard to say how long it lasted, but it was probably about 10 to 20 seconds I think,' Ms Marr said.
'I heard a guy on the radio say he timed it and it lasted 40 seconds, but it's hard to tell.'
The Christchurch quake struck at 3.49pm (AEST), centred 10km northeast of Diamond Harbour at a depth of 11km.
It was felt strongly in Christchurch and also in Timaru.
Christchurch remains devastated following a magnitude 6.3 quake on February 22, which claimed an estimated 181 lives.
That quake followed a magnitude 7.1 quake last September 4.
http://www.skynews.net.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=602052&vId=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
USGS reading at 6am today, see s/shot attached
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.phpMAP 4.7 2011/04/16 15:56:23 37.058 138.572 8.5 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
