In today's headlines with Wilhelmina Shrimpton, Health NZ in the firing line, bowel cancer screening concern, and new Mpox variant spreads to Asia.
The biggest earthquake to hit parts of the NSW Hunter region in 50 years could have been triggered by coal mining in the region, a geophysicist says.
The 5.0 magnitude quake shook the town of Denman at 12.02pm (2.02pm NZ time) on Friday, sparking thousands of reports oftremors in the following hour, including from people in Sydney, about 171km south.
It was the biggest earthquake in the area for 50 years, but smaller than the 5.4 magnitude earthquake that devastated Newcastle, 117km east, in 1989, killing 13 people and flattening hundreds of buildings.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said it had received 11 calls related to minor residential damage and reports of minor infrastructure damage in nearby towns of Maitland and Muswellbrook.
The SES said dams in the area were unaffected.
Unverified social media posts showed stock knocked on the floor of a Muswellbrook hardware store and cracks in the wall of a house in the town, said to be caused by the quake.
UNSW geophysicist Stuart Clark said the quake was the biggest of six to hit the local area, a coal mining hub, in the past 50 years.
“It’s a little smaller than the Newcastle earthquake, and there was another one 5.3 [magnitude] in 1994,” associate professor Clark said.
“The cause is compressional forces across the continent but the trigger is potentially coal mining.”
An earthquake occurred in Northern NSW a few minutes ago. Preliminary magnitude is 4.6. Location is south of Muswellbrook, near Lake Liddell. pic.twitter.com/gm5NwqSmEG
