2:38 am, HUGE earth tremor hit darwin !

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

Just now , at 2:38am here in Darwin , I am sitting here and I feel like I'm getting dizzy ! Then I realise the chair is wobbling back and forth , and start hearing a very faint rumble , and the windows and roller doors in my workshop start rattling ! YEEEEE HAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dayum, it freaky when ya stand outside and the earth is shaking under your feet ! The epicentre is more than likely N/west of here in the timor sea. I hope there are no tsunami side effects !

[Pedro]

Sounds like you had an earth moving experience. (sorry about that one)
The epi-centre was 440 km NE of Dili in E Timor well below the earth's surface with a magnitude of 7.7. Apparently these deep ones don't cause tsunamis.

[falcon91]

Actually I think I felt this in Adelaide because I fell out of bed around this time. Probably due to the 20 stubbies beforehand though!

[LUXO_8]

Originally Posted by Blue Oval Mopar Man

Just now , at 2:38am here in Darwin , I am sitting here and I feel like I'm getting dizzy ! Then I realise the chair is wobbling back and forth , and start hearing a very faint rumble , and the windows and roller doors in my workshop start rattling ! YEEEEE HAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

damn!, that'd be freaky

[XLS99 Ute man]

Tsuuuuuuuuuunaaaaaaami

[RavenLS1]

Originally Posted by Pedro

Sounds like you had an earth moving experience. (sorry about that one)
The epi-centre was 440 km NE of Dili in E Timor well below the earth's surface with a magnitude of 7.7. Apparently these deep ones don't cause tsunamis.

glad to here that! :lookedat:

[XBCoupeGuy]

I lived through two earthquakes in Newcastle when I lived there.

During one of them a mate and I were just sitting in the lounge room chatting. We were on separate couches and all of a sudden the room started shaking extremely violently.

I initially thought my flat mate had snuck down the hall way and was shaking the couch but I realised no one could move a couch like that with me on it.

We were both looking at each other as we bounced around and it was very violent and it was actually hard to keep focussed on the other person we were moving that much.

After what felt like ages it stopped and we sat there for a moment stunned.

We saw the light swinging from the ceiling and realised it was an earthquake.

A split second later the screaming started as all the people ran out of the apartment block across the road in absolute terror.

It was only minutes after that that the sirens started and we realised it was pretty bad.

It felt bad enough in a house but it must have been worse 3 or floors up.

The devastation around town was absolutely amazing. Whole buildings had collapsed.

9 people died that day but it is surprising it wasn't much worse.

About 5 years later it happened again but the damage was far less and no loss of life. I guess all the weak buildings had already fallen down during the furst quake.

Even today (17 years later) there are still buildings in Newcastle showing signs of damage from way back then.

[phee]

I am from Darwin too... felt like someone was shaking my bed, but wasn't as bad as the one on March 2nd 05. Items fell off the cabinets then I was going to run downstairs and grab my surf board and wait for the tsunami to surf it in but thought better of it!

Here is some information on it:

Indonesia Rocked by Magnitude 7.7 Offshore Earthquake (Update2)

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia was rocked by an earthquake of magnitude 7.7, which struck offshore in the Banda Sea, south of the islands of Ceram and Ambon, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

The earthquake happened shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 28 local time about 195 kilometers (120 miles) south of the city of Ambon, on Ambon island in Indonesia's Moluccas islands, the USGS said in a preliminary report on the temblor.

While the quake was the strongest in the world since September, there was no immediate word of any damage and no known tsunami danger. Indonesia was the country worst affected by the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake and subsequent tsunami that destroyed coastal communities across the Indian Ocean and killed more than 200,000 people from Indonesia to Somalia.

``This earthquake is located outside the Pacific,'' the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in an e-mailed advisory. ``No destructive tsunami threat exists in the Pacific or elsewhere based on historical earthquake and tsunami data.''

People in Ambon ran from their homes when the quake shook the area, an unidentified policeman told Agence France-Presse.

The temblor struck at a depth of 341 kilometers, the USGS said. The epicenter was 440 kilometers northeast of Dili in East Timor, 825 kilometers north-northwest of Darwin in Australia and 2,370 kilometers east of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Earthquakes of magnitudes between 7 and 7.9 are described as ``major,'' with a global average of 17 such events per year since 1990, according to the U.S. quake center. Ten major earthquakes hit around the world last year, with one temblor measuring 8 or more in magnitude -- rated a ``great'' quake.

An Indian Ocean tsunami warning network may be operational by July. Countries around the ocean are installing monitoring equipment, buoys and communication links that will be known as the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

Hey Phee, welcome to the forums ! I know your car. I hope to see a few more members from up here too!

Your right about this tremor not being as strong as the Mar05 one , but this one went for twice as long!