Earthquake that struck remote areas of South Africa ‘permanently changed the landscape’

Cracks in the ground in outback Australia, caused by a 5.5-magnitude earthquake, could help researchers predict future seismic activity.

Amata, a remote community in the Anangu Pitjantjara Yankunitjara (APY) territory near the border of South Australia and the Northern Territory, felt the quake at the beginning of April.

The research team saw extensional cracks caused by the earthquake “spanning” the Earth’s surface. (Supplied: Quinn McNab)

Shortly after, researchers from the University of Melbourne arrived at the scene and saw a tear in the ground several kilometers long.

“The rocks on the west side have been raised about half a meter or so compared to the rocks on the east side,” University of Melbourne professor Mark Quigley told ABC North & West Breakfast’s Tom Mann.

“The landscape there has changed permanently.”

Professor Quigley said the apparent rupture was “probably 3 or 4 kilometers long”, with finer cracks also visible.

“It extends right through areas of bedrock into areas of younger sediment on either side of the bedrock knob,” he said.

“It allows us to perform detailed geological analyzes of subsurface rupture… to understand how geology affects damage patterns from earthquakes.”

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On April 5, the agency received about 30 reports from people who felt the quake that morning, said Jonathan Bathgate, senior seismologist at the Australian Geosciences Authority.

He said its magnitude was equivalent to the devastating Newcastle earthquake in 1989, which killed and injured dozens, and caused a damage bill worth $4 billion.

He added: “It is an earthquake of the same size, and it happens to have occurred in a remote area of ​​the country and not near a populated center.”

Lessons from Earth

Earthquakes that damage the surface are relatively rare, with 11 earthquakes known to have occurred in Australia in the 50 years to 2018, according to Professor Quigley’s research.

The surrounding landscape after these types of earthquakes can provide important insight.

Professor Quigley said: “We have seismometers… all over the country, but they are rarely located directly above earthquake ruptures. So we have to use other methods to try to understand those ground movements.”

“What we can do here is go out right after an earthquake and look, for example, at the way rockslides occurred, or individual rock fragments were blown into the air.”

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks were recorded in the Amata region in April. (ABC News: Carl Saville)

Rupture caused by this earthquake is now the subject of ongoing research from the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with Geoscience Australia.

Observations from Earth have already proven interesting to Professor Quigley.

“There’s this interesting, distinct property of the earthquake that tells us that the movements were dominated by movements perpendicular to the fault, which is quite remarkable,” he said.

“In other words, for a fault that strikes almost north-south, the dominant movements are more east-west. Rocks were moving toward and away from the fault.”

The researchers found parts of the crack where one side was raised about half a meter above the other, where it would have previously been flat. (Supplied: Quinn McNab)

Professor Quigley said research into this earthquake should provide lessons that could then be applied to the same type of fault mapped elsewhere.

“Including centers close to cities like Adelaide, for example, to try to understand… what the vibration patterns might look like, and therefore what potential impacts they might have on infrastructure,” he said.

“I think it will reveal some really tremendous insights into the physics of earthquakes, not just in Australia, but applicable to geologically similar areas around the world.” More news from South Africa Regional

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