Magnitude 3.0 earthquake rocks regional Victoria

A magnitude 3.0 earthquake has rocked parts of regional Victoria.

The magnitude 3.0 earthquake was recorded at about 10:45 a.m. local time on Saturday in Lerderderg State Park, northwest of Melbourne, at a depth of 7 kilometers.

An aftershock with a magnitude of 1.6 followed the first earthquake.

Up to 88 people felt the tremors, with the majority of felt reports to Geoscience Australia coming from Ballarat, followed by residents of Geelong and Frankston.

It comes just days after a magnitude 4.0 earthquake was detected off the coast of Western Australia on Thursday morning.

The earthquake was detected 160 miles (260 km) from Albany on Washington’s south coast at a depth of 6 miles (10 km).

Thousands of residents were without power on Tuesday after a magnitude 4.1 earthquake shook regional NSW.

Up to 88 people reported feeling the first earthquake to Geoscience Australia (pictured)

The event was recorded at 12.15pm on Tuesday 7km from Denman in the Upper Hunter Region, 250km north of Sydney, at a depth of 10km.

More than 300 people reported feeling the earthquake in the Hunter Valley, Central Coast, Scone and Penrith in western Sydney, according to Geoscience Australia.

Experts warned the NSW earthquake was part of a ‘swarm series’ that would cause more seismic activity in the area in coming months.

Residents of the NSW mining town of Muswellbrook were told to expect ‘hundreds to thousands’ of aftershocks after four earthquakes in three months.

“With earthquake swarms you have a series of earthquakes of similar magnitude – it’s not like an aftershock series,” GeoScience Australia senior seismologist Dr Hadi Ghasemi told the ABC.

The magnitude 3.0 earthquake was recorded at about 10.45am on Saturday in Lerderderg State Park, northwest of Melbourne, at a depth of 7km (photo)

“In this region, since the magnitude 4.7 in August, we have recorded more than 50 earthquakes, four of them with magnitudes greater than 4, including the recent one.”

Dr. Ghasemi warned residents of the possibility of further tremors being felt.

“All previous magnitude-4 shocks in this region were followed by smaller aftershocks,” he said.

“But on the other hand, with the swarm activity, this kind of activity could continue for months or even years.”