From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Large earthquake recurrence on the southern Willunga Fault, South Australia

Created 26/03/2026

Updated 26/03/2026

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

The presence of Pliocene marine sediments in the Myponga and Meadows basins within the Mt Lofty Ranges south of Adelaide is testament to over 200 m of tectonic uplift within the last 5 Myr (e.g., Sandiford 2003, Clark 2014). The spatiotemporal distribution of uplift amongst the various faults within the range and along the range fronts is poorly understood. Consequently, large uncertainties are associated with estimates of the hazard that the faults pose to proximal communities and infrastructure.

 

We present the preliminary results of a paleoseismic investigation of the southern Willunga Fault, ~40 km south of Adelaide. Trenches were excavated across the fault to examine the relationships between fault planes and sedimentary strata. Evidence is preserved for 3-5 ground-rupturing earthquakes since the Middle to Late Pleistocene, with single event displacements of 0.5 – 1.7 m. Dating of samples will provide age constraints on the timing of these earthquakes. This most recent part of the uplift history may then be related to the longer-term landscape evolution evidenced by the uplifted basins, providing an enhanced understanding of the present-day seismic hazard.

This abstract was presented at the Australian & NZ Geomorphology Group (ANZGG) Conference in Alice Springs 26-30 September 2022. https://www.anzgg.org/images/ANZGG_2022_First_circular_Final_V3.pdf

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Large earthquake recurrence on the southern Willunga Fault, South Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/1ca5ca83-c975-441b-9372-9840ef353d52
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 17/08/2022
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.92,
        -54.75
      ],
      [
        159.11,
        -54.75
      ],
      [
        159.11,
        -9.2402
      ],
      [
        112.92,
        -9.2402
      ],
      [
        112.92,
        -54.75
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Large earthquake recurrence on the southern Willunga Fault, South Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/large-earthquake-recurrence-on-the-southern-willunga-fault-south-australia11