Second big ’quake hits Tennant

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 11

Second big ’quake hits Tennant

NZPA-AAP Alice Springs

A second big earthquake, stronger than one recorded yesterday morning, has shaken the tiny township of Tennant Creek in central Australia.

This earthquake, early yesterday afternoon, was stronger than yesterday’s earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale.

The earthquake was the eleventh to hit the town in three hours. It sent visible shockwaves rippling along the town’s wide main street and reportedly cracked the road wide open south of the town. All shops in the town have closed after the tremors shook stock off

the shelves. Water mains have burst, phone lines are down and the town’s power supply has been disrupted. While seismologists have not yet precisely determined the epicentre of the earthquake, they believe it lies 40 kilometres north-west of the town.

They have not confirmed reports of a 30 to 40 kilometre long ridge, one metre to 1.5 metres high, which may have resulted from the first earthquake yesterday morning. The Tennant and the “Barkly Times” newspaper proprietor, Chris Afianos, was talking to a

newspaper in Sydney at the time of the second big tremor.

She broke off the call saying, “It’s starting again,” and ran from the building screaming. The phone line then went dead.

The Tennant Creek pool has also been damaged and created its own minor tidal wave, emptying out on to the ground. Large cracks have now developed in Tennant Creek’s many old buildings and even in the newly built Government centre.

Windows and electrical fittings have been smashed and cracked by the series of earthquakes.