Kalgoorlie Earthquake

[BMKal]

Well we had a bit of a rumble yesterday morning at 8:17am.

I was enjoying a bit of a sleep-in and it was enough to wake me up and get me out of bed in a hurry - shook hell out of the house for about 10 seconds and was by far the worst that I have ever felt.

Epi-centre was closer to Boulder than Kalgoorlie, and registered 5.0 on the Richter Scale - not as big as Meckering (6.1) but by far the biggest ever recorded in the Goldfields (we experience smaller tremors here on a fairly frequent basis - often difficult to tell if they are in fact a natural event or the result of mining activities). This one was definitely nothing to do with the mining industry.

There was quite a lot of fairly extensive damage over in Boulder to many of the older buildings there - reports of about 80 buildings serioulsy damaged. Have seen pics of pubs with collapsed verandahs / balconies, Boulder town hall and war memorial buildings extensively damaged, Boulder Primary School damaged both structurally and with collapsed ceilings in classrooms (fortunately kids weren't at school yet) and numerous others. On TV last night, sections of Burt Street looked a bit like a war zone, with rubble on footpaths & in the street. Also showed one house partly collapsed and on fire. The main shopping centre of Boulder is closed off to keep the rubber neckers out, and will be so for at least a couple of days.

Only reports of injury are two people struck by falling brickwork etc - one young girl pinned under rubble in reception area of local business. Fortunately, neither of them injured seriously.

Oh well ................ another life experience. At least nothing serious and we are far more fortunate than some in other areas who experience worse. Definitely gives you a strange feeling when the whole place shakes like that though. :o

[Frenchie]

Did it cause any problems in the mines? ie underground?

Missed it by a few days! :cool:

[land864]

What's the go with all the lates earthquakes and Volcanoes :o

Were those Myans correct about 2012 :eek:

[BMKal]

Did it cause any problems in the mines? ie underground?

Missed it by a few days! :cool:

Superpit was immediately evacuated - think they were going back in last night.

There are currently no underground mines that I can think of working in Kalgoorlie / Boulder. Further out, so far haven't heard of any impact. Next door neighbour is underground driller at Kanowna Belle - just spoke to him as he was on night shift last night - said no damage out there. My son is underground a little further out at Trident - he was underground yesterday morning at the time of the quake and said that they never even knew about until they heard it on the news.

[Tombie]

What's the go with all the lates earthquakes and Volcanoes :o

Were those Myans correct about 2012 :eek:

Continual tectonic shift / pressure...

Just the planet 'loosening her belt' after a long rest :cool:

[brianwood]

"Earthquakes will occur in one place after another" is part of a prophecy in Matthew chapter 24 - marking the end of this system of things...
No doubt there will be more...

[ATH]

No Richter Scale any longer and hasn't been for many moons. It's now called the Moment Magnitude Scale which is virtually the same.
Lucky no one was hurt by falling debris and the damage was probably more because the buildings were in bad condition and rotten with termites than the actual force of the tremor.
Alan.

[banjo]

Well we had a bit of a rumble yesterday morning at 8:17am.

I was enjoying a bit of a sleep-in and it was enough to wake me up and get me out of bed in a hurry - shook hell out of the house for about 10 seconds and was by far the worst that I have ever felt.

Epi-centre was closer to Boulder than Kalgoorlie, and registered 5.0 on the Richter Scale - not as big as Meckering (6.1) but by far the biggest ever recorded in the Goldfields (we experience smaller tremors here on a fairly frequent basis - often difficult to tell if they are in fact a natural event or the result of mining activities). This one was definitely nothing to do with the mining industry.

There was quite a lot of fairly extensive damage over in Boulder to many of the older buildings there - reports of about 80 buildings serioulsy damaged. Have seen pics of pubs with collapsed verandahs / balconies, Boulder town hall and war memorial buildings extensively damaged, Boulder Primary School damaged both structurally and with collapsed ceilings in classrooms (fortunately kids weren't at school yet) and numerous others. On TV last night, sections of Burt Street looked a bit like a war zone, with rubble on footpaths & in the street. Also showed one house partly collapsed and on fire. The main shopping centre of Boulder is closed off to keep the rubber neckers out, and will be so for at least a couple of days.

Only reports of injury are two people struck by falling brickwork etc - one young girl pinned under rubble in reception area of local business. Fortunately, neither of them injured seriously.

Oh well ................ another life experience. At least nothing serious and we are far more fortunate than some in other areas who experience worse. Definitely gives you a strange feeling when the whole place shakes like that though. :o

another life experience .. Yep was in the Newcastle one i think it was 5.5 dont really want to do that again..Once was enough..

[VladTepes]

You people are clueless...

Tectonic plates indeed.... :rolleyes:

Everyone knows they are casued by promiscuous women !

Iranian cleric: Promiscuous women cause quakes (http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1107ap_ml_iran_earthquakes_promiscuity.html'source =mypi)

Is that what they mean when they say "The earth moved for me!"

[BMKal]

You people are clueless...

Tectonic plates indeed.... :rolleyes:

Everyone knows they are casued by promiscuous women !

Iranian cleric: Promiscuous women cause quakes (http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1107ap_ml_iran_earthquakes_promiscuity.html'source =mypi)

Is that what they mean when they say "The earth moved for me!"

Hehehe ............. well when I first woke up and the house was shaking - I just thought it was SWMBO on the thunderbox. :wasntme:

[richard4u2]

folks , if BMKal dont come on for a few days we can come to the conclusion that he is waiting for the swelling around his eyes to clear up:)

[JDNSW]

What's the go with all the lates earthquakes and Volcanoes :o

Were those Myans correct about 2012 :eek:

I don't think there is anything special going on - earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been happening ever since records started, and I know of no evidence to suggest any change in frequency of them. They have always been irregular in occurrence, but perhaps what has happened in recent years is that communications worldwide have improved, so that as soon as there is an occurrence it is on the news. The other thing that has happened is that as population density increases worldwide, these are more likely to have a human impact, and so make the news.

John

[BMKal]

Couldn't agree more JDNSW. They had some scientist on TV last night saying that, on average, Australia experiences a quake or tremor of 5.0 or thereabouts once per year, and has so since records were kept. The thing is that with such large tracts of uninhabited land in Australia, few of these go noticed except for by those with the instrumentation to record them.

My understanding is that many (if not most / all) of the world's major landforms as we know them today were formed by seismic activity of one form or another, dating right back as far as you can mention. I simply have to laugh when people associate these events with the "prophecies" of some religious order or other quack like Nostril Damus or similar. People who are stupid enough to believe this claptrap will believe anything.

And Richard - SWMBO is a non-violent person, though she reckons that you might be onto a good idea there. :angel:

[PAT303]

I was in the Super Pit when it hit,I haven't seen so many fat men running so fast!!!. Pat

[JDNSW]

.........

My understanding is that many (if not most / all) of the world's major landforms as we know them today were formed by seismic activity of one form or another, dating right back as far as you can mention. .......

Probably not quite right to say that the world's major landforms were "formed by" seismic activity. More correctly, seismic activity is a side effect of movements of the tectonic plates that are ultimately responsible for the formation of all the world's landforms.

Seismic activity is simply the vibration of the earth that results from these movements, specifically, when two lumps (perhaps continent sized) of rock move against each other, they do so in jerks. As stress builds up, movement is prevented by friction between the lumps of rock until the stress exceeds the frictional force preventing movement, when it will move rapidly anywhere from a few centimetres to a few metres, releasing much of the stress at least locally. This causes a local elastic vibration, which spreads in all directions as elastic waves, normally both compressional and shear waves, with more complex types of wave created at the free surface. The most destructive waves are usually Rayleigh waves which are a surface wave with circular particle motion, and because of their low velocity, have a short wavelength and high amplitude. These effects are worst on surface deposits such as alluvium, which have a very low velocity of propagation.

John

[PAT303]

We just had an aftershock,my JR is hiding under my daughters bed. Pat

[rovercare]

We just had an aftershock,my JR is hiding under my daughters bed. Pat

:)Cute, poor puppy is a scaredy cat:D

[Bushie]

This may give you a better idea on just how 'common' earthquakes (tremors) are.

Geoscience Australia: Recent Earthquakes (http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/)

Natural Hazards (http://webmap.ga.gov.au/imf-natural_hazards/imf.jsp'site=natural_hazards_earthquake)

I can remember at least 3 since I have lived at my current address.


Martyn

[brianwood]

I don't think there is anything special going on - earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been happening ever since records started, and I know of no evidence to suggest any change in frequency of them. They have always been irregular in occurrence, but perhaps what has happened in recent years is that communications worldwide have improved, so that as soon as there is an occurrence it is on the news. The other thing that has happened is that as population density increases worldwide, these are more likely to have a human impact, and so make the news.

John

Um, I think the records indicate otherwise, John...
Below is a graph showing how the number of all magnitude earthquakes has grown over recent years.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

Graph above provided by DL Research. - dlindquist.com - Home (http://www.dlindquist.com)

[Disco44]

I was in the Super Pit when it hit,I haven't seen so many fat men running so fast!!!. Pat

Yea to that Mate,that's one hell of a big hole to be in when the earth around you starts to do it's dance.I'm not fat but I'd be going like a bat out of hell too..if only one could fly.
John.

[JDNSW]

Um, I think the records indicate otherwise, John...
Below is a graph showing how the number of all magnitude earthquakes has grown over recent years.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

Graph above provided by DL Research. - dlindquist.com - Home (http://www.dlindquist.com)

And 33 years is exactly how significant in terms of geological time? Bear in mind that the spacing of major earthquakes which made news even before instrumentation are much larger than this period - for example, Lisbon has been the subject of historical records for probably over a thousand years, and in that time there has been exactly one major earthquake; San Francisco has been a city for about 150 years, and has had one major earthquake.

Earthquakes have only been measured with any pretence of accuracy for about a 100 years, and there has only reasonable been worldwide coverage following the Vela Uniform project of about 1970. Ever since then coverage has been improving (enhancing the ability to detect smaller earthquakes that would not be noted at any great distance from the epicentre), especially since the internet made unattended stations much simpler, and IT improvements have made both instrumentation and analysis of results much cheaper. Is it a coincidence that your graph starts to climb in 1994 when the internet started to become widespread?

Until corrected for instrumentation coverage, I would think the most likely explanation for the apparent rise is improved instrumentation. A graph showing only magnitudes above, for example 3.0, would be more convincing, but even then the short time period makes it meaningless as far as any trend goes.

John

[PAT303]

Well we had another loud shake at 2.20pm yesterday and another really good rumbley one this morning. Pat

[windsock]

Um, I think the records indicate otherwise, John...
Below is a graph showing how the number of all magnitude earthquakes has grown over recent years.

http://www.earth.webecs.co.uk/images/graph.jpg

Graph above provided by DL Research. - dlindquist.com - Home (http://www.dlindquist.com)


...and the rest of the graph...

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/04/449.jpg

Now, it'd be interesting from a purely academic point of view to see how the sensitivity of seismometers and the numbers in use has increased since 1973. As the saying goes, "Lies, damn lies and bloody statistics" or some such thing.:angel:

[windsock]

And 33 years is exactly how significant in terms of geological time?

[snip]

Is it a coincidence that your graph starts to climb in 1994 when the internet started to become widespread?

Until corrected for instrumentation coverage, I would think the most likely explanation for the apparent rise is improved instrumentation. A graph showing only magnitudes above, for example 3.0, would be more convincing, but even then the short time period makes it meaningless as far as any trend goes.

John

Woops, beat me by a small margin of geologic time and a few paragraphs... ;)

[BMKal]

Went for a bit of a look in Boulder yesterday now that they've installed barricades and re-opened Burt Street.

Bloody hell :o - the damage is worse than what I expected, and definitely more than what has been shown on TV. Some of it is very obvious (from the collapsed sections of building and debris on the ground) and a lot more not so obvious - until you look up and see the massive cracking in walls, and wall sections actually moved away from the rest of the building.

And that's only what you can see from out in the street. ;)

Pretty much all damage seems to be on the second floor of two storey buildings - single floor buildings fared much better. All damage appears to be collapse / cracking of brickwork / stonework / masonry - even where timber balcony structures have collapsed, it is not the timber that has failed but the supporting structure.

A lot of these buildings will be out of action for months, with talk of some having to be permanently demolished. The worst hit "business sector" is definitely the pubs. :( All pubs in the main street, except possibly for the Albion (Metropole, Rock Inn, Grand and the Rec) have been damaged and were closed yesterday, as were the Golden Eagle, Broken Hill and Main Reef away from the main street.

Boulder town hall has been damaged, though less visual than some others, apparently one of those with siginficant structural damage - similar for the Boulder war museum.

Looking at the amount of rubble just on the footpaths outside the buildings, I'd say that the timing of the quake was extremely fortunate - had this occurred at a busier time of the day, a lot more injury would certainly have resulted.

[LandyAndy]

Hi Brian
A couple of the boys at work are ex Telstra tower builders.A good mate of theirs that used to be on the Telstra gang is now a driller.He was telling them that he SAW the earthquake whilst working just north of Kal.
Apparentley WAVES were clearly visable shifting across the ground.
Was happy to be doing surface work at the time!!!!
Andrew

[BMKal]

Would be a sight seeing that Andrew. Next door neighbour is an underground driller at Kanowna Belle - he was on night shift and had just got home when it struck. Has since told me that the day shift was evacuated and all work cancelled - though later inspection found no damage. Those that were down the hole at the time were in a bit of a rush to get out though. :o

[lardy]

"Earthquakes will occur in one place after another" is part of a prophecy in Matthew chapter 24 - marking the end of this system of things...
No doubt there will be more...

fingers crossed then cos when oil runs out i don't want to watch my land rover rot now that i have done it up