Are more earthquakes happening in Australia?

The Seismology Research Centre has reported at least 10 earthquakes greater than 2.5 in magnitude in 2024.

The most prominent was a 3.6 magnitude earthquake in the Blue Mountains region west of Sydney on March 8.

But seismologists suggest Australia has not experienced more quakes than usual.

Geoscience Australia seismologist Hadi Ghasemi said people were simply more aware when earthquakes happened.

Earthquakes had not increased in number but factors such as better reporting systems and online confirmation indicated people were more informed when earthquakes did occur.

"Now there is a mechanism there for people to report or at least to verify if what they felt is the real earthquake or not," Dr Ghasemi said.

"Basically publishing the event in the website confirms people's feeling."

Even with the amount of earthquakes being felt many more were going undetected, Dr Ghasemi said.

"There's a very good chance that there are way more earthquakes happening, that we cannot pick it up," he said.

"Most of the events were small, so they have gone unnoticed by the community."

Australia's biggest recorded earthquake happened in 1988 at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Three earthquakes hit the outback town with the largest measured at 6.6 magnitude.

The earthquake warped a gas pipeline and damaged several buildings costing $2.5 million to repair.

The town of Meckering, 130 km east of Perth in WA, was struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in 1968.

Of the 78 buildings in the town only 16 houses and 3 businesses were left standing after the tremors.

The earthquake was so large it was felt in Perth and even damaged some buildings.

One of Australia's most damaging natural disasters was the 1989 Newcastle earthquake.

It was a relatively small earthquake, measuring a 5.6 magnitude, but it created a disproportionally large amount of damage.

The earthquake led to 13 deaths and injured around 160 people. It's estimated the earthquake caused $4 billion worth of damage to 35,000 homes, 147 schools and 3000 buildings.

Australian band Silverchair wrote the song Faultline for lead singer Daniel Johns' friend who died in the earthquake.