A 4.7 Magnitude Earthquake Was Recorded Near Wagin This Morning, Part Of An On-Going Earthquake ‘Swarm’

If you live around the southeast of Western Australia you may have felt a little earthquake this morning, Geoscience Australia’s National Earthquake Alerts Centre (NEAC) recording a preliminary magnitude of 4.7 just after 5.20am this morning.

Recorded near Wagin, there was one aftershock recorded at 6.38am, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.6.

More than 500 reports were submitted via the Earthquakes@GA website, with some coming as far north as Bunbury and even Perth.

Earlier today the ABC reported that this mornings earthquake comes on the back of the Arthur River area of WA recording more than 40 earthquakes in recent times, something experts call an “earthquake swarm“.

And while earthquake swarm does kinda sound like something out of large scale disaster movie, it’s not exactly uncommon for the region to experience small earthquakes.

Geoscience Australia reports that there have been almost 1200 earthquakes recorded within 200km of this particular earthquake, the largest being 5.3 in magnitude at Lake Muir in 2018.

“Compared to countries near tectonic plate boundaries, Australia experiences fewer large earthquakes.”

If you felt this morning’s earthquake, Geoscience Australia asks you to report it online via the Earthquakes@GA website.