This isoseismal data shows the distribution of the shaking effects of earthquakes felt in Australia between 1841 and 2003. The data was captured from maps collated in the Geoscience Australia record "Atlas of Isoseismal Maps of Australian Earthquakes" compiled by K.F. McCue and supplimented with data from recent Centre for Earthquake Research Australia (CERA) reports and other unpublished data. Data present include felt values (point) and isoseismal contours (lines) from 405 earthquake events in an attributed GIS dataset.

Legacy product - no abstract available

The Mount Lofty and Flinders Ranges of South Australia are bound on the east and the west by reverse faults that thrust Proterozoic and/or Cambrian basement rocks over Quaternary sediment. These faults range from a few tens to almost one hundred kilometres in length and tend to be spaced significantly less than a fault length apart. In the few instances where the thickness of overthrust sediment can be estimated, total neotectonic throws are in the order of 100-200 m. Slip rates on individual faults range from 0.02-0.17 mm/a, with one unconfirmed estimate as high as 0.7 mm/a. Taking into account the intermittent nature of faulting in Australia, it has been suggested that 30-50% of the present-day elevation of the Flinders and Mount Lofty Ranges relative to adjacent piedmonts has developed in the last 5 Ma. Uplifted last interglacial shorelines (ca. 120 ka) along the southern coastline of the Mount Lofty Ranges indicate that deformation is ongoing. Palaeoseismological investigations provide important insight into the characteristics of the large earthquakes responsible for deformation events. Single event displacements of 1.8 m have been measured on the Williamstown-Meadows Fault and the Alma Fault, with the former relating to a surface rupture length of a least 25 km. Further to the south in Adelaide's eastern suburbs, a 5 km section of scarp, potentially relating to a single event slip on the Eden-Burnside Fault, is preserved in ca. 120 ka sediments. Where the Eden-Burnside Fault meets the coast at Port Stanvac 20 kilometres south, the last interglacial shoreline is uplifted by 2 m relative to its expected position. At Normanville, on the uplifted side of the Willunga Fault, the last interglacial shoreline is over 10 m above its expected position, implying perhaps five or more surface rupturing events in the last ca. 120 ka on this >50 km long fault. On the eastern range front, a very large single event displacement of 7 m is inferred on the 54 km long Milendella Fault, and the 79 km long Encounter Fault displaces last interglacial shorelines by up to 11 m. There is abundant evidence for large surface-breaking earthquakes on many faults within 100 km of the Adelaide CBD. Slip rates are low by plate margin standards, implying a low rate of recurrence for M7+ events on individual faults (perhaps 10,000 years or more). However, a proximal moderate-sized event or even a large event at distance has the potential to cause significant damage to Adelaide, particularly given its construction types and local site conditions.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Hundreds of aftershocks have followed the Andaman-Sumatra earthquake on 26 December 2004. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake occurred where the Indo-Australian plate is being subducted under the Eurasia Plate. This subduction zone stretches from Burma in the west to West Irian Jaya in the east.

The inventory of over 200 fault scarps captured in GA's Australian neotectonics database has been used to estimate the maximum magnitude earthquake (Mmax) across the Stable Continental Regions (SCRs) of Australia. This was done by first grouping the scarps according to the spatial divisions described in the recently published neotectonics domain model and calculating the 75th percentile scarp length for each domain. The mean Mmax was then found by averaging the maximum magnitudes predicted from a range of different published relations. Results range between Mw 7.0-7.5±0.2. This suggests that potentially catastrophic earthquakes are possible Australia-wide. These data can form the basis for future seismic hazard assessments, including those for building design codes, both in Australia and analogous SCRs worldwide.

We present new paleoseismicity data for the 30 km long and 2.5 m high Hyden fault scarp in Western Australia, which, when combined with the results of previous research, provides the most extensive record of surface rupturing earthquakes yet assembled for an "active" Australian intracratonic fault. The data indicate that four to five surface rupturing earthquakes have occurred on the Hyden Fault during the Quaternary (E1: ca. 20 ka, E2: ca. 50-55 ka, E3: ca. 90-100 ka, and two events E4 and E5, >200 ka). Activity is episodic, with single seismic cycle slip rates varying from 0.03 mm/yr to less than 0.01 mm/yr. Palaeo-earthquake magnitudes are estimated to have been in the order of M 6.8. The identification of a similar fault scarp immediately northwest of the Hyden scarp, and of two air-photo lineaments to the west of the Hyden scarp, indicates that strain is distributed amongst a family of faults in this region. The presence of multiple nearby active faults suggests that the recurrence of severe ground shaking in the Hyden region is more frequent than indicated by the palaeoseismic data presented here.

This article summarizes a report prepared for Geoscience Australia by Paul Somerville, Robert Graves, Nancy Collins, Seok Goo Song and Sidao Ni of URS Corporation. The report was completed on June 30, 2009. It is anticipated that the ground motion models developed in this project may be used in the generation of future probabilistic ground motion maps for Australia.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) and Geoscience Australia are developing a long-term partnership in order to better understand and reduce the risks associated with earthquake hazards in the Philippines. The current partnership is specifically designed to enhance the damage estimation capabilities of the Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System (REDAS) software, developed by PHIVOLCS. We have chosen Iloilo City, Western Visayas, as the pilot community to demonstrate our earthquake risk assessment - QuiveR (Quick Unified Inventory of Vulnerability and Exposure for REDAS) Any natural hazard risk assessment requires an understanding on the nature and vulnerability of the building stock in the region of interest. We have acquired two main datasets; 1) the Philippine National Statistics Office census data; and 2) the Iloilo City Assessors Office Data, each providing unique attributes on the nature of the building stock and socio-economic indicators for the city. Finally, to supplement and validate these data, we conducted building surveys within Iloilo City. Through this project, we have engaged with local structural engineering community which led to the development of a National Building Classification Schema and consensus-based vulnerability curves for key building types in the Philippines. Finally, we discuss how models from this engagement process have been incorporated into REDAS to enable risk calculations for scenario earthquakes near Iloilo City. Finally, we have demonstrated how detailed understanding of the building stock in a local community can assist with natural hazard risk assessments - not just for risk reduction and response activities for future earthquakes, but possibly for a range of natural hazards.

The Australian Seismological Report 2010 provides a summary of earthquake activity for Australia for 2010. It also provides a summary of earthquakes of Magnitude 5+ in the Australian Region, as well as an summary of Magnitude 6+ earthquakes worldwide. It has dedicated state and territory earthquake information including: largest earthquakes in the year; largest earthquakes in the state; and tables detailing all earthquakes detected by Geoscience Australia during the year. There are also contributions from PIRSA describing Seismic Networks and providing Earthquake locations for South Australia.