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What have we learnt regarding cratonic earthquakes in the fifty years since Meckering?

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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The 14th of October 1968 Ms 6.8 (Mw 6.58) Meckering earthquake was the first of a remarkable series of nine historical surface rupturing earthquakes to occur in the Precambrian craton of western and central Australia. Geological investigations of the ruptures, including that relating to the 26th of May 2016 Mw 6.1 Petermann Ranges earthquake, found no evidence to suggest a prior event in the geologically recent past. The handful of paleo-earthquake scarps that have been investigated in the same cratonic crust setting show evidence for limited recurrence of large events (e.g. Dumbleyung, Hyden, Roopena). Further research is required to determine if the events forming the current topography are the only events that have occurred on a given fault scarp, or if they represent only the more recent of a protracted series of events. Irrespective, these data challenge the plate margin paradigm often adopted in intraplate environments that large earthquakes recur periodically on ‘active’ faults. This raises the question of whether the models used in seismic hazard analyses to describe earthquake recurrence in intraplate cratonic regions are appropriate.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title What have we learnt regarding cratonic earthquakes in the fifty years since Meckering?
Language English
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/ebd3f5f9-41b3-43f3-948b-45bdb67b5b19
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 04/05/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "What have we learnt regarding cratonic earthquakes in the fifty years since Meckering?". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/what-have-we-learnt-regarding-cratonic-earthquakes-in-the-fifty-years-since-meckering