A century of earthquakes in the Dalton-Gunning region of New South Wales

The Dalton-Gunning region of New South Wales (34.5-35.0oS, 148.5- 149.5°E) is one of the more seismically active areas in Australia. Reports of felt earthquakes which occurred there in 1888, 1934 and 1984 were used to draw up isoseismal maps using the Modified Mercalli Scale (MM) of intensity. Magnitudes of 5.3, 5.6 and 4.4 were computed from the radius of perceptibility of each earthquake, and epicentral co-ordinates were assumed to be coincident with the centre of the highest isoseismals. These, and other earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater that are known to have occurred since 1886, are tabulated to enable more accurate earthquake risk analyses to be undertaken for the region. Extreme-value analysis of the hundred years of earthquake data yields magnitudes of 3.3, 4.6 and 5.8 for the 1, 10 and 100 year return periods in the region. These data are extrapolated to compute a return period of 120 years for a large, potentially damaging, earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

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Published (Metadata Record) 04/03/2026
Last updated 04/03/2026
Organisation Australian Federal Government
License License Not Specified
Update Frequency Unknown