CANBERRA, ACT, Aug. 21 -- Geoscience Australia issued the following news release:
Aftershocks are possible
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit south eastern Queensland at 9.49 AM on Saturday 16 August, near the town of Kilkivan and around 40 kilometres west of Gympie.
The earthquake was widely felt across the east coast of Australia, with over 24,000 felt reports registered.
Seismologist Dr Michelle Salmon said that the earthquake was felt as far south as Wollongong and as far north as Cairns.
Why was the earthquake felt as widely as it was?
"This is the largest onshore earthquake in Queensland in over fifty years," she said.
"Queensland is Australia's least seismically active state," Dr Salmon added. "In the past 12 months we have only r...