Melbourne is one of the most populated cites of Australia. The city is crowded and has plenty of sky scrapers which are spread all across the city. Just like any other city, Melbourne too faces the risk of earthquakes and experts believe that if a massive earthquake strikes Melbourne than the result could be catastrophic.
Melbourne is a planned city and most of its modern day buildings are constructed keeping in mind the quake safety measures. But even the most brilliant of minds cannot predict what God and nature has stored for us. A brilliant planning will only be able to reduce the impact of the quake but not the overall damage.
Melbourne has in the past has faced several earthquakes and fortunately enough the city escaped without facing any major incidents. The first reported earthquake in Melbourne occurred in the year 1977.
The epicenter of the 1977 earthquake was Balliang which is small suburban area of Melbourne. The town of Balliang is around thirty four miles from the Victorian capital Melbourne. The earthquake was not that massive and measured only 4.7 on the Richter scale.
The next earthquake to strike Melbourne was in the year 1982. The earthquake measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the earthquake was a small town of Wonnangatta which lies in the Wonnangatta valley along the Wonnangatta fault line.
The earthquake shook the entire Wonnangatta valley and was mostly felt in the East and south eastern part of Victoria including the city of Melbourne. Since the epicenter of the earthquake was at Wonnangatta, the affect was not that much in Melbourne but people all around the city felt the quake tremors and became quite nervous.
The tremors were again felt in the year 2000 at Boolarra which is quite near to Melbourne. The quake measured 5 on the Richter scale and its impact was minimal. Even though the earthquake was low on the Richter scale, its affect made the entire city nervous. People were now even more conscious and were eager to learn about the earthquake safety measures.
Melbourne rocked again twice in the year 2009 when two earthquakes occurred within a period of fifteen days. Both the earthquakes measured 4.7 on the Richter scale and its affect was felt widely across Melbourne.
The first earthquake occurred on 6th March and the second one occurred on 18th March 2009. The epicenter of the quake was at Korumburra which is quite near to Victorian capital Melbourne.
Earthquake tremors were again felt on 19th June 2012 when an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred ten kilometers south West of Moe. The quake was strongly felt all across Melbourne which made people quite nervous.
Though several researches on earthquakes are being conducted all across the world, but scientists have still not been able to achieve a major breakthrough in predicting earthquakes. Due to our limited ability on earthquake predictions it has become very important for people to learn the basic precautionary measures to safeguard oneself at the time of earthquake.
Moreover, all the constructions which are made in the city should be done keeping in mind the safety measures regarding earthquakes. These measures should be applied to each and every building as safety measures helps in reducing the damages in terms of wealth and lives.
Past records as shown that Melbourne can face a severe earthquake at any point of time in the future. It is therefore very important that people should be well educated about them so that when the time comes; they use their wisdom not only to save their own life and property but also other people who need help.