Since the SA Government is still considering the recommendations of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission on the possibility of nuclear industrial activities in SA, it should be noted that all nuclear installations are conservatively designed for seismic risk. In the 60-year history of nuclear power generation, there has never been significant damage due to an earthquake – not even at Fukushima, where damage was due to an earthquake-caused tsunami

The Seismology Research Centre (SRC) can confirm that a magnitude 2.7 earthquake did occur near Adelaide at 12:24 pm local time, with its preliminary epicentre about 10km south of the CBD. An earthquake of this magnitude is expected to be felt up to 10-20km from the epicentre. This event comes after two other recent earthquakes felt in South Australia, both over magnitude 3, and coincidentally only months after the announcement of the impending closure of the South Australian earthquake observatory.

The SRC is working with Geoscience Australia and other responsible authorities in the region to look at continuing high resolution earthquake monitoring in South Australia, but no firm decisions have yet been made. South Australia is one of the more consistently active seismic states of Australia, and Adelaide is historically the capital city that has been most affected by earthquake damage, so it is important that we continue monitoring if funding can be secured to do so.

A small earthquake occurred near Morphett Vale at 12:24pm on Friday the 10^th of February 2017. The earthquake has a magnitude, estimated by Geoscience Australia, of 2.7 and estimated depth of 20km. The initial estimate of epicentre location suggests that the earthquake occurred near Flinders University, along the Eden-Burnside Fault line, one of the six major fault lines running through Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills. Today’s earthquake location is very close to the epicentre of Adelaide’s largest and most damaging earthquake, the Magnitude 5.6 earthquake that occurred in March 1954, and which resulted in 16 injuries.