Valley residents are all shook up.
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A series of minor earthquakes having been rocking homes across the Mid North Coast since the weekend, with hundreds of locals reporting feeling tremors throughout the night.
Although data from the nearest tracking station at Armidale shows the tremors originated to the south of Dorrigo, seismologist Spiro Spiliopoulos from Geoscience Australia said the earthquakes have been difficult to precisely locate because of their small magnitude.
“We’re still working on the location,” he said.
“These earthquakes measured a magnitude 2.5 on the Richter Scale, so they must have originated very close to where the people were feeling them.”
The first of the four tremors, occurred at 10.10am on Saturday, January 20.
Three more tremors were recorded on this morning: one at 5:55am, 6:14am and 7:36am according to the tracking station at Armidale. Tremors were also recorded last night.
The earthquake at 7:36am recorded a 3.1 magnitude, according to Geoscience Australia.
Julie Weaver also said she “felt two in close succession this morning at Nambucca Heads at around 8.15 am”.
And John Pollock confirmed that he too had felt one at 8.30am on Browns Crossing Rd at Eungai Creek.
While Daria Xie confused the rumble at 8.30pm last night with thunder and then a freight train until she realised the truth during the morning’s tremors.
And reports have been coming in from Gumma, Macksville, Bowraville, Valla, Stuarts Point, Grassy Head, Taylor’s Arm and Congarinni throughout the morning from residents who felt windows rattle and the earth move under them.
One Mid North Coast local, Corrinne Boon, has been shaking in her boots since she felt the tremors on Saturday.
“They were getting stronger each time and I was worried it was a preliminary to a bigger earthquake – sometimes you hear reports of minor tremors leading into a major earthquake,” she said.
“It was just so out of the ordinary.
“It’s really bizarre – we don’t have earthquakes here and all of those in two days.”
But many locals missed out on the action, dead to the world and tucked up tight in their beds.
Mr Spiliopoulos said although experts are still unsure as to the cause of the latest tremors, earthquakes in the region were uncommon but not rare.
“Australia has a low level of background seismicity,” he said.
“In the last 20 years, there has been 10 earthquakes within a 100km radius of the Nambucca, including the four on the weekend.”
Mr Spiliopoulos said it is difficult to forecast whether the earthquake activity will continue and if so, for how long.
“Sometimes we call it a swarm of earthquakes – it’s unpredictable,” he said.
“We’ll continue to monitor and if anything further happens, we’ll report it on our website.”
If you experience any earthquake activity and wish to report it, you can do so via www.ga.gov.au