A magnitude 2.9 earthquake has rocked the town of Batlow in NSW’s Snowy Mountains region, with locals reporting hearing a “loud boom” at the time.
The small earthquake struck about 1pm on Sunday.
Dozens made reports of tremors to Geoscience Australia – the government agency responsible for monitoring earthquakes.
The epicentre of the quake was recorded close to the nearby town of Tumut and measured at magnitude 2.9.
A second earthquake, with a magnitude of 3, also hit Broken Hill on Sunday night.
Geoscience Australia confirmed it had received 34 reports from members of the public who had experienced tremors from the seismic event.
Jonathan Bathgate, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia said there had been a number of similar sized earthquakes in the area over the past few years.
“It is an area that has a history of some small earthquakes of this size,” he said.
“It is a short movement along the fault, which presents as one short and sharp jolt and a bang, depending on the atmospheric conditions that reverberate off low cloud and appear louder.
“Because they are so short in duration, it just presents as one loud bang and there’s no ongoing shaking or rumbling, as you get with larger earthquakes.”
Data from the agency shows that NSW has experienced 62 earthquakes in the past year and 777 over the last decade.
Water bosses moved swiftly to dampen fears over weather local infrastructure – including the Blowering Dam – could be put in danger by the earthquake.
“Those dams are designed to withstand seismic activity well in excess of what was experience at Tumat and at the site of Blowering,” WaterNSW spokesman Tony Webber told ABC.”
He added that this particular earthquake was well below the threshold to trigger an immediate inspection of the dam.