Adelaide could be hit by an earthquake 30 times more powerful than the earthquake in Christchurch

According to leading geologists, an earthquake 30 times more powerful than the deadly earthquake that devastated Christchurch in 2011 could hit Adelaide.

Geoscience Australia is digging trenches along the Willunga fault line in southern Australia, discovering indications of strong seismic activity in the past.

Dr Dan Clark warned that a major earthquake could affect the surrounding area, including the state capital, dwarfing the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand 11 years ago, killing 185 people.

“We calculate that the active length of this 55 km fault could host a magnitude 7.2 earthquake,” he told Adelaide Now.

“An earthquake of this magnitude would have nearly 30 times the energy released by the earthquake that devastated Christchurch.”

Adelaide is one of the most seismically active areas in Australia due to the city sitting on a series of fault lines including the Willunga, Para and Eden faults.

In March 1954, Adelaide was hit by a 5.2-magnitude earthquake – the largest ever recorded. Three people were seriously injured in the accident.

The city has experienced 10 earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 3.0 in the past 10 years, including the March 3.7 earthquake.

While experts can’t predict exactly when a massive earthquake could strike Adelaide, they say evidence suggests the city experiences major events “every few hundred years or every 100 years”.

“We haven’t seen in most places in Australia the biggest earthquakes that can be generated,” he said.

Critical infrastructure, facilities, and society in general must be prepared for these events, even if they are extremely rare.

For example, a magnitude 6.2 of the Christchurch earthquake may occur every thousand years or every few thousand years. Earthquakes of the size of the 1954 Adelaide earthquake may occur every few hundred years or every 100 years.

Geoscience Australia and the University of Melbourne and the Earthquake Research Center have dug two deep trenches 40 kilometers south of Melbourne to examine the Willunga fault.

They are looking for layers of silt in the area that have been altered by strong earthquakes and can be dated to determine when the event occurred.

The information can be used to better prepare communities for earthquakes and other seismic activities.

Dr Clark said it should be particularly useful for future development planning, and advised against building hospitals, dams and power stations near high-risk areas.

“While the techniques are not new in plate margin settings such as California or New Zealand, few bugs have been studied in Australia in this way,” said Dr. Clark.

In Australia, researchers have identified more than 350 faults – landscape features produced by large earthquakes – mostly via desktop studies using digital elevation data.

Fewer than a dozen of these faults have been the subject of detailed field investigation in the Archaic period to determine their actual seismic potential.

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