Rapid Deployment for Earthquake Aftershock Monitoring in Southwest Western Australia – the Arthur River Swarm 2022

On 5 January 2022, the residents in Western Australia’s Southern Wheatbelt were in for a shock – quite literally. They experienced a magnitude 4.0 earthquake. Reports from the area tell of cracks in masonry and pictures falling off the walls. Although the State’s southwest is known as the southwest seismic zone, (Doyle, 1971), one of the most seismically active regions in Australia (Leonard, 2008, Dentith and Featherstone 2003), this event came as a surprise to many and there was more in store for this normally quiet community. Aftershocks continued to register on the Earthquakes@GA website at a rate of several per day.