The last significant earthquake in Australia was a magnitude 6.4 in the Banda Sea on October 28, 2025, felt in Darwin and WA, but minor quakes happen constantly, like recent magnitude 2.1 near Adelaide and 3.0 near Tamworth. Australia experiences frequent small tremors, with magnitudes 3+ occurring often, and larger ones (M5+) every couple of years, though major ones (M6+) are rarer, says Geoscience Australia.
No, a magnitude 10.0 earthquake has never occurred, and scientists consider it practically impossible because it would require a fault line extending most of the way around the planet, which doesn't exist; the largest recorded earthquake was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile, and magnitude 9+ quakes involve ruptures of immense, but still finite, fault zones. While theoretically imaginable for non-tectonic events like massive asteroid impacts, no known geological fault is long enough to generate a 10.0 earthquake, placing an upper limit around magnitude 9.5-9.9 for tectonic events.
On average 100 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more are recorded in Australia each year. Earthquakes above magnitude 5.0, such as the destructive 1989 Newcastle earthquake, occur on average every one-to-two years. About every ten years Australia experiences a potentially damaging earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or more.
While earthquakes can happen anywhere in Australia, Adelaide is generally considered the most earthquake-prone major city due to its location on active fault lines, with a significant earthquake occurring in 1954. Other high-risk areas include Canberra (near the Lake George fault) and regions like the Gippsland area in Victoria (Latrobe Valley) and Darwin, which experiences distant tremors from Indonesia.
The video has been shared by Facebook account "John Ikulala" and TikTok account @world. weather2, among others, with captions definitively stating: "7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Sydney, Australia today." Our investigation reveals this claim is completely fabricated.
🙋Did you know the Australian tectonic plate is moving northeast about 7cm a year? This is the main cause for the 100 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0+ Australia experiences each year on average. ⚠️ Even though Australia doesn't get a lot of big earthquakes they can and do happen.
The earthquake that killed an estimated 830,000 people was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (also known as the Hua County Earthquake) in China, making it the deadliest earthquake in recorded history, striking during the Ming Dynasty and destroying homes, particularly cave dwellings, across a vast area.
Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake. We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future.
Low-frequency, high-impact threat
Australia experiences a tsunami once every four years, on average. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, there have been more than 50 tsunami events in Australia since 1788.
Australia is unlikely to become entirely uninhabitable soon, but climate change is making large areas, especially in the north, extremely hot and potentially unlivable under higher warming scenarios (around 3°C), straining infrastructure, impacting agriculture, and displacing vulnerable populations, while coastal areas face rising sea levels and severe erosion, making parts of cities and towns uninsurable and at risk. The primary threats are extreme heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, floods, and sea-level rise, disproportionately affecting regional, Indigenous, and disadvantaged communities, forcing significant adaptation and threatening the nation's food security.
Drop, Cover and Hold under a desk or table. If there's no table around, find the nearest safe place beside an inside wall or lower than furnishings. If outside and in an open area, sit down and cover your head with your arms. If in “the danger zone”, next to building, try to get back into the building for shelter.
Tennant Creek 1988 earthquake now Australia's biggest after Geoscience revises list, ABC News An earthquake recorded near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory in 1988 is now considered Australia's largest ever, snatching the title from Western Australia.
Since Australia has an up-to-date loading standard for earthquakes, the risk to buildings designed to current standards are minimal. The challenge we have are the old buildings (constructed before 1993) which are not designed to earthquake loading.
The world's deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China. It struck a region where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. These dwellings collapsed during the earthquake, killing an estimated 830,000 people.
While earthquakes can happen anywhere in Australia, Adelaide is generally considered the most earthquake-prone major city due to its location on active fault lines, with a significant earthquake occurring in 1954. Other high-risk areas include Canberra (near the Lake George fault) and regions like the Gippsland area in Victoria (Latrobe Valley) and Darwin, which experiences distant tremors from Indonesia.
5 tsunami warning signs
The Australian tsunami warning system
Australia was fortunate not to be in a direct path of the tsunami wave energy from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, with most of the energy travelling west from Sumatra. However, a major earthquake south of Java could focus tsunami wave energies on the west coast of Australia.
If the earthquake is right under our feet, we can't warn people because as soon as we notice it, we get rocked. But if it's a big earthquake on the coast or in California, it would take a few minutes for the crack to spread and rupture near us, giving us two, three or four minutes warning.
Android can alert you seconds before an earthquake hits, so you can seek safety faster. Powered by the Android Earthquake Alert System, every Android device is a mini-seismometer, making up the world's largest mobile earthquake detection network. Once the shaking is over, you can tap for tips on what to do next.
Warning signs that may indicate an earthquake is imminent can include:
The Heaviest Hitters
In a new paper, the researchers report that it was the dancing and jumping movements of the 70,000-plus fans, not the music or sound system, at the August 4 concert that created the seismic waves that have come to be called "Swift quakes."
On January 23, 1556, an earthquake struck the Shaanxi Province of China, causing an estimated 830,000 deaths, most of them in the Wei River Valley. It was the deadliest earthquake on record.