Eve Lamb
When Castlemaine was rocked by an earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale recently Sandon seismologist Gary Gibson sprang into action.
Recording and studying seismological phenomena is all part of a day’s work for the long time local who numbers among Australia’s select few dedicated professional and practicing seismologists.
“There’s probably 15 or 20 of us in Australia,” says Mr Gibson, principal research fellow in seismology with the University of Melbourne.
Based at Sandon near Newstead, he also works with the Victorian-based Seismology Research Centre, sharing data with other seismologists nation-wide.
Mr Gibson keeps close tabs on a network of six seismographs strategically located to measure movements deep in the earth associated with the locality’s ancient Muckleford Fault Line.
Running from Bradford Hill north of Maldon, south to Welshman’s Reef it was the Muckleford Fault that shifted on May 27 producing a quake with its epicentre located two km north of Welshmans Reef.
In Castlemaine CBD – where it’s understood to have been most strongly felt, office workers reported mistaking the momentary shuddering and rumbling for a truck slamming into a verandah post. Read more in today’s Mail…