Port Hedland: Australian mining town hit by third earthquake in 12 hours

A remote mining town has been hit by three earthquakes just hours apart.

The Pilbara town of Port Hedland on the north coast of Western Australia was hit by a magnitude 3.1 earthquake on Thursday morning, followed by a magnitude 3.8 quake at around 11.39am.

Shortly afterwards, an aftershock measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale followed.

Port Hedland resident Nick Roberts said the second quake felt like “a truck had driven through his building”.

“It was very short and sweet,” he said.

No significant damage was reported from the relatively shallow quakes, whose epicentre was 50km southeast of the city.

Dr Hadi Ghasemi, senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said the ABC Small earthquakes were not uncommon in the region, but it was relatively rare for an aftershock to be larger than the original quake.

“Aftershocks are always possible,” he said.

The remote mining town of Port Hedland in Western Australia was hit by two earthquakes on Thursday

‘We know that a small proportion of earthquakes are followed by a larger earthquake nearby.

“It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s not uncommon.”

Just a month ago, Port Hedland was hit by a similar magnitude earthquake 30km southeast of the city. The earthquake measured 3.5 and its epicentre was 30km southeast of the city.

On June 8, the town’s residents were awakened by a loud tire boom, followed by a shaking that lasted for seconds.

According to Dr. Ghasemi, it is possible that the extensive mining of iron ore and lithium is contributing to the geographic instability.

However, he said the region had experienced earthquakes before, even before large-scale mining took place.

“If you look at the background of the region, you expect small earthquakes,” he said.

The most recent major seismic event in the region was a 6.6 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Broome in 2019.

No damage was reported from the two quakes measuring 3.1 and 3.8 respectively in Port Heathland