why does australia still feel earthquakes regardless of our position on tectonic plates?
![Picture](/uploads/5/3/5/7/53578059/7532321.jpg?422)
Australia has large earthquakes very rarely. About every hundred years or so we get an earthquake exceeding magnitude seven on the ricketier scale. In eastern Australia earthquakes occur at depths of about twenty kilometres, compared to depths of seven hundred kilometres in active seismic zones like in Indonesia. Australia has low intensity earthquakes almost every day, but most are not felt. These earthquakes only effect a very small area. The last major earthquake in Australia centred in the city of newcastle in deceember 1989. this earthquake killed thirteen people, injured around one hundred and sixty and cost more than four billion dollars in damages.
Australia is stable tectonically as it has no major fault or active mountain building systems. Australia is one big land mass situated in the centre of a much larger plate. Active tectonism occurs usually at the boundaries of large plates involving earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; such as in Japan or New Zealand. Aa Australia is situated on a large plate and is flat, we do not have active tectonism. However we still get earthquakes in Australia despite this stability due to intra-plate tectonism. In this case some earthquakes are caused by heating effects in the deep sedimentary basins or new movements in old faults. Australia is being gently compressed between the north-west, south-west axis which lies parallel to the plate movement. The compression is occurring because the Australian plate is starting to be forced against the edge of the Eurasian and Pacific plates to the north; as well the southeastern corner of Australia is getting more compression from the near by plate boundary of New Zealand.
Australia is stable tectonically as it has no major fault or active mountain building systems. Australia is one big land mass situated in the centre of a much larger plate. Active tectonism occurs usually at the boundaries of large plates involving earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; such as in Japan or New Zealand. Aa Australia is situated on a large plate and is flat, we do not have active tectonism. However we still get earthquakes in Australia despite this stability due to intra-plate tectonism. In this case some earthquakes are caused by heating effects in the deep sedimentary basins or new movements in old faults. Australia is being gently compressed between the north-west, south-west axis which lies parallel to the plate movement. The compression is occurring because the Australian plate is starting to be forced against the edge of the Eurasian and Pacific plates to the north; as well the southeastern corner of Australia is getting more compression from the near by plate boundary of New Zealand.