Two earthquakes rock the Pilbara in Hedland and Newman

The Pilbara has been rocked by two earthquakes recorded near Hedland and Newman on the morning of Wednesday December 4. At 4.49am, a 3.6-magnitude earthquake was measured by GeoScience Australia near Pippingarra, south of Port Hedland, while a second 3.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded west of Newman at 11.05am. “We do get earthquakes in this part of the world. In the last year, we’ve had 14 earthquakes within roughly 50km of Port Hedland. They’re uncommon, but not unusual,” GeoScience Australia senior seismologist Spiro Spiliopoulos said. ‘They’re caused by the stress in the crust, the stress is built up, and they’re released along fault lines and cause earthquakes.” Hedland residents flocked to Facebook to describe what sounded like a “big explosion” reporting they heard and felt tremors near South and Port Hedland. “We hear about booms being reported, so the earthquake will go underground a few kilometres below the surface, the elastic waves will propagate up to the surface, and then they’ll be turned into sound waves,” Mr Spiliopoulos said. “If it’s close enough to the surface, these are high-frequency sound waves. They come out and they sound like a boom.” The Bureau of Meteorology issued a statement on social media on the morning of December 4 confirming there was currently no tsunami threat to Australia. GeoScience Australia is encouraging WA residents who felt the earth shake to make a “felt report” via earthquakes.ga.gov.au.