Images of the surprising earthquake in Melbourne

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale shook South Australia. It occurred in the Mansfield area, in the state of Victoria, and its effects were noticeable in Melbourne. This tremor is an absolutely atypical phenomenon in a country where relevant earthquakes do not usually occur.

Buildings were shaking and there was material damage, although, for the moment, no serious injuries or deaths have been reported.

It is not common for earthquakes to occur in Australia, so the surprise has been enormous among the population.

You have to go back to 1997 to remember a similar seismic episode. The worst earthquake on record occurred in 1988 and reached magnitude 6.6.

Obviously, people were scared by the earthquake. The houses seemed to be falling. In the end, however, most of the buildings held up well.

Some Melbourne streets looked like theatres of war.

The earthquake occurs in the middle of a COVID-19 crisis. Authorities imposed strict restrictions on the population in order to put a stop to a recent COVID-19 outbreak. There have been some fierce protests in Melbourne against these measures

Does the earthquake in Australia have to do with what is happening on the opposite side of the planet? Is there a relationship with the eruptions of volcanoes such as Cumbre Vieja, on the Spanish island of La Palma (in the image), or the Etna in Italy?

The areas lie far enough from each other to assume that there is no clear link between the events. Still, scholars assert that movements inside the planet can produce a domino effect. (In the image, Etna erupting.)

So far, Melbourne has endured the earthquake without major shocks. It was just a scare.

Can a volcano eruption in Spain cause a tsunami in New York?