Seismologist looks for volunteer in Gnowangerup to house portable earthquake recorder to monitor quake zone

If the earth moves in Gnowangerup, a Perth-based seismologist would love to hear about it, as he puts out a call for someone in the town to house a portable earthquake recorder. Vic Dent, a researcher with the University of WA, is after data from Gnowangerup to add to Geoscience Australia’s network of technology which gathers earthquake information from across the country. A recorder housed in the Gnowangerup Community Resource Centre picked up too much noise from passing cars to be reliable, and needs a new home. The area is prone to numerous small earthquakes and Mr Dent said he wants to keep tabs. “The whole of the Wheatbelt is in the south-west seismic zone which reaches from Moora to Mt Barker,” he said. “There is no good reason why it’s there, but earthquakes keep happening and it’s the most active area in Australia probably apart from the Flinders Ranges.” There is already a volunteer set-up in Dumbleyung, but Mr Dent hopes Gnowangerup will follow suit. There have been several minor quakes in the last six months, including one that Mr Dent said was recorded on the morning of January 22. “An earthquake near Dumbleyung, recorded on my network about 2.30am, was magnitude 2.3,” he said. “Unusually, there were about five earthquakes in the Great Southern over the last week, the largest being a magnitude 2.5 near Arthur River.” An earthquake measuring 2.4 on the Richter Scale hit Dumbleyung in October — although nobody noticed — and another was recorded in Darkan measuring 2.2 on November 11. There was a tremor on December 3 east of Dumbleyung, one on January 21 east of Darkan, magnitude 2.6, and another the same day south-east of Dumbleyung, magnitude 2.3. A post on the Gnowangerup Notice Board social media page by Ian Bailey, a friend of Mr Dent, said the Gnowangerup recorder needed to be sited in a shed or garage at least 50m away from a busy road but within reach of wifi. “The recorder needs desk space, in which two book-sized recorders need to sit, protected from wind and rain and connected to the mains power,” went the post. “They will be connected by cable to a geophone, which will sit on the ground outside (with a cable through a window or door), which records vibrations from tremors. “The location needs to be in reach of your wifi, so the data can be sent to a computer in Perth. “The volume of data is not high. “The data is fed into a national network that’s used for research and determining the strength and location of earthquakes.” The post said Mr Dent would visit the site every couple of years but hoped the volunteer would be “handy enough to plug bits in or turn things on and off under his direction when sorting out the occasional problem”. The biggest earthquake to hit WA was the 1968 Meckering quake which was a 6.5-6.9 magnitude, and which destroyed the town, located about 40km east of Northam. A 2018 quake measured at 5.7 near Lake Muir in the Shire of Manjimup, 124km west of Albany, was the fifth biggest on record at the time. Potential volunteers can contact Mr Vent at vic_dent@yahoo.com.