Why does Australia have earthquakes? The whole continent is under stress from distant forces Australia is a long way from the tectonic plate boundaries where most earthquakes happen – but we can’t escape the forces they create.

For those who are curious about the #qld earthquake on Saturday morning here is an article in the @aunz.theconversation.com written by @deeninis.bsky.social and @mojtabarajabi.bsky.social - why does Australia get earthquakes when it isn’t close to any plate boundaries? Read to find out more.

Why does Australia have earthquakes? The whole continent is under stress from distant forces

Australia is a long way from the tectonic plate boundaries where most earthquakes happen – but we can’t escape the forces they create.

Why does Australia have earthquakes? The whole continent is under stress from distant forces Australia is a long way from the tectonic plate boundaries where most earthquakes happen – but we can’t escape the forces they create.

Why does tectonically “stable” Australia get earthquakes? @deeninis.bsky.social, Abbas and I explain in our new article for The Conversation.

theconversation.com/why-does-aus...

Felt the quake here in Brisbane!
At 9:49am, a magnitude ~5 earthquake (GA 5.6 ML; GFZ: 5.4; 4.9 USGS) occurred ~160km from Brisbane. Despite QLD’s relatively low seismicity compared to other parts of Australia, the tremor was felt across a wide area. details below from GA.

Queensland underground data reshapes our understanding of tectonic plate stress The Earth’s underground stress patterns have been mapped in more detail than ever before.

World 🌏stress map 4th edition. 100000 data points from across the world. New australian borehole data shiw that sometimes local orocesses 🪨 more important than large scale plate tectonics. Large international collaboration including work by Dr Rajabi at UQ. Database available, Paper in review.

Pleased to announce the 4th major release of the @wsmproject.bsky.social, the biggest update of the database since the project began.

With thousands of new data, the 2025 WSM brings the most comprehensive picture yet of Earth's present-day stress field.

#Geomechanics

W: www.world-stress-map.org

Pleased to announce the 4th major release of the @wsmproject.bsky.social, the biggest update of the database since the project began.

With thousands of new data, the 2025 WSM brings the most comprehensive picture yet of Earth's present-day stress field.

#Geomechanics

W: www.world-stress-map.org

Passionate about geomechanics?
There’s still time to submit your abstract in our #EGU2025 session: “The Present-Day Stress State – Starting Point for Research and Subsurface Engineering”.
Share your work on this global stage!
Deadline: 15 January: meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

#EarthquakeReport for M7.3 #Earthquake offshore of #Vanuatu

Oblique reverse (?) earthquake mechanism (mostly Compressional)
Within subducting Australia plate
Maybe small local tsunami (?)

Tectonic background in '23 report earthjay.com?p=10727

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

Impact of faults on the remote stress state Abstract. The impact of faults on the contemporary stress field in the upper crust has been discussed in various studies. Data and models clearly show that there is an effect, but so far, a systematic...

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📢Paper Alert! "Impact of faults on the remote stress state" The paper investigates which component of the stress tensor is affected at which distance from the fault, using a series of generic 3-D models.
doi.org/10.5194/se-1...
@karstreit.bsky.social

I am happy to announce the publication of the paper on the impact of faults on the remote stress state: se.copernicus.org/articles/15/...

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#EGU24
Are you doing some stress or strain related research? We welcome all kinds of research from observations to experimental studies, and laboratory results to numerical modelling.
meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU24/sessio...

Stress map of northern Bowen Basin using 890 quality-ranked orientation of maximum horizontal stresses.

Depth analysis of stress data in the northern Bowen Basin using 9,046 horizontal stress orientations.

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📢Paper Alert! Contribution of mine borehole data toward high-resolution stress mapping: An example from Bowen Basin, Australia This paper represents the most comprehensive quality-ranked basin-wide stress map according to our database!
@geostress.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

Analyses of 128 km of image logs in 680 boreholes in northern Bowen Basin resulted in the most comprehensive, basin-scale stress orientation map based on @wsmproject.bsky.social

Recumbent chevron folds in a cliff. A woman at their bottom.

I did this photo in October 2022, in Millook Haven (Cornwall, UK). I may not be my best geological photo, but it's the one that pleases me the most.

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