Seismology in Australia

The following organisations are currently locating earthquakes in Australia:

	ES&S Seismology Research Centre (SRC)		Primary Industries & Resources SA (PIRSA)
	Geoscience Australia (GA)		Queensland University (ESSCC)

A Brief History

The Research School of Earth Science at the Australian National University in Canberra operated seismograph networks in southeast New South Wales and eastern Victoria from 1958. These were used to determine the location and magnitude of many thousands of earthquakes, and data were published in a monthly Local Earthquake Bulletin. From July 1988, only events larger than magnitude ML 2.0 were located. These Bulletins were discontinued in June 1993.

Geoscience Australia (formerly the Australian Geological Survey Organisation - AGSO, previously Bureau of Mineral Resources - BMR) in Canberra has been operating seismographs since 1962. The Mundaring Geophysical Observatory near Perth is now part of AGSO, and has been monitoring earthquakes in Western Australia since 1959. AGSO now operates the Australian National Seismograph Network, which includes instruments across Australia at an average spacing of about 500 km, plus three seismographs in Australian Antarctic Territory and on Macquarie Island. The AGSO network aims to give an estimate for the epicentre of all earthquakes in Australia larger than ML 3.0, and these are listed in a Monthly Report on Australian Earthquakes.

The University of Tasmania has operated a seismograph network in Tasmania since 1960, including a number of telemetered sites for the Hydro-Electric Commission. The operation of a majority of this network was taken over by the SRC, and the network continues to operate today.

The University of Adelaide, through Dr David Sutton, installed a network of seismographs in South Australia from 1962. This network later moved to Flinders University, and then to the South Australian Government as the Sutton Earthquake Centre, originally in the South Australian Department of Mines and Energy (SADME), later in Mines and Energy South Australia (MESA), and very recently in Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA).

The Seismology Research Centre was originally at Preston Institute of Technology. The institute was renamed Phillip Institute of Technology, and later merged with RMIT, who eventually sold the SRC group to a private company, Mindata Australia, which was in turn acquired by ES&S. The SRC has been operating seismographs in southeast Australia since 1976. The current network includes over 100 permanent sites through Victoria and New South Wales plus some temporary sites. Many are operated for water supply agencies such as Melbourne Water and Sydney Water. The Centre aims to locate earthquakes with a precision sufficient to delineate active faults, and has located thousands of events.

The University of Queensland first operated a local seismograph network northwest of Brisbane in 1977. This later moved to the Queensland Government Department of Mines and Energy, but returned to the University in 1994 when the Queensland University Advanced Centre for Earthquake Studies (QUAKES) was formed.