A 4.6 magnitude earthquake was felt across Australia's most populous state in the early hours of Wednesday morning, April 23.
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Reports indicate that the tremor had its epicentre about 25 kilometres outside Singleton in the Hunter Valley, and hit at a depth of about 10 kilometres, waking residents across the region.
Geoscience Australia - the national body that monitors earthquakes - has been inundated with more than 1000 reports from residents who felt the earth move as far south as Canberra and as far north as Armidale and Tamworth.
Senior seismologist Dr Phil Cummins said the quake was "widely felt" from Wollongong all the way to Port Macquarie.
"There have been quite a number of earthquakes in this region, further north up near Muswellbrook, there was also the Ellalong earthquake in 1994 and of course the Newcastle earthquake," he said.
"I would expect some aftershocks to occur as a result of this earthquake and that may continue for a few days or a week or more."
At Cessnock, one resident woken by the tremor said neighbours came out onto the street in the early hours just to see what the commotion had been about.
At Newcastle, others described having cupboard doors rattle.
NSW Police say there have been no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
'Bed shook, walls shook'
ACM journalist Louise Nichols, who lives near Singleton, said her household was woken by the tremors.
"The quake occurred at 2:55am and swayed my timber home near Singleton, sending photos to the ground and waking the household," she said.
"Many in the area are used to the impacts of ordnance explosions from the Singleton Infantry Army Base, but this was a completely different feeling, most notably the change in air pressure and the swaying of the building."
Federal MP for Hunter Daniel Repacholi said the quake was a 'bit of a rude awakening" in a post to his Facebook.
"At this stage there are no reports of significant damage, but if any does have any issues, please reach out asap," Mr Repacholi said. "My team are on the ground and ready to help."
"We live on the 8th floor of an apartment block," a constituent replied. "Felt strong sways, knew it was an earthquake straight away."
One reader told ACM's Newcastle Herald their house shook.
"Felt my house shake at Edgeworth. I thought it was under my house, bed shook, walls shook - really loud and quick," they said.
"I was woken up by the bed shaking," another said.
Ghosts of earthquakes past
This most recent event eclipses the most significant earthquake in 20 years to have rattled the Hunter when a 4.8 magnitude tremor hit Muswellbrook in August, setting off a litany of aftershocks in the weeks that followed.
At the time experts told ACM, the publisher of this masthead, the activity may have been caused by a build up of stress along the nearby ancient Hunter-Mooki fault that runs through the state or by other contributing factors.
The southern tip of the Hunter-Mooki is close to Newcastle, which memorably recorded a 5.42 magnitude earthquake on December 28, 1989, at a depth of around 11 kilometres.
That quake toppled power lines, flattened buildings, killed 13 people and left 162 others injured.
Geoscience Australia reported a 3.7 magnitude earthquake striking the Albury, Wodonga and Holbrook region on April 4 at 12.30pm.
Did you feel the earthquake? Let us know what happened by emailing saffron.howden@austcommunitymedia.com.au
- Geoscience Australia initially reported the quake registering on the Local Magnitude scale at 5.1. The measure, which records movement at a specific location, is more sensitive to fast, intense shaking and is preferred for smaller scale quakes. In the hours that followed the initial tremor, Geoscience shifted its preferred scale to the Moment Magnitude measure for larger quakes, based on the total seismic activity, on which the same tremor measured 4.6.
Jessica Brown
