The
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n town of
Meckering was struck by an earthquake on 14 October 1968. The earthquake occurred at , with a moment magnitude of 6.5 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''). Total damage amounted to $2.2 million with 20–28 injured.
Earthquake
The shallow fault was about long around the western side of the town of Meckering. It damaged roads including the
Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway is a road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link ...
, the
Eastern Goldfields Railway
The Eastern Goldfields Railway was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.
History
The Eastern Railway opened in stages from Perth to Nort ...
and the
Goldfields water pipeline. It formed a
fault scarp
A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement a ...
up to high with overthrusting to the west of up to and strike-slip displacement of up to .
[
]
Damage
The effect of the earthquake involved structures in Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
,public holiday
A public holiday, national holiday, or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year.
Sovereign nations and territories observe holidays based on events of significance to their history ...
, the Queen's Birthday and theatres were packed with children.
See also
* List of earthquakes in 1968
*List of earthquakes in Australia
This is a list of significant earthquakes recorded in Australia and its territories. The currency used is the Australian dollar (A$) unless noted otherwise.
List of earthquakes
Other earthquakes
* Broome, 16 August 1929, magnitude 6.6, offsho ...
*South West Seismic Zone
The South West Seismic Zone (also identified as SWSZ) is a major intraplate earthquake province located in the south west of Western Australia. It was known earlier as the ''Yandanooka – Cape Riche Lineament'', corresponds to the physiograp ...
References
Sources
*
External links
*
{{Earthquakes in Australia
1968 earthquakes
Earthquakes in Western Australia
Wheatbelt (Western Australia)
1960s in Western Australia