SHAKY GROUND: How the earthquake was recorded by Geoscience Australia.
SIGNIFICANT movement of the ground on land owned by Cadia Valley Operations was a small earthquake according to Geoscience Australia.
Geoscience Australia which tracks earthquakes and tsunamis, posted on its website yesterday morning it had recorded the earth movement at 8.25pm on Monday.
However later in the day Geoscience Australia removed the seismic event from its website while it contacted Cadia Valley Operations to determine if any blasting had taken place and may have accounted for the recording.
General manager of Cadia Valley Operations (CVO) Tony McPaul said yesterday geotechnical engineers are investigating the cause of the event.
“However due to the history of natural movement in that location, it is most likely attributable to natural regional stresses in the area,”.
Mr McPaul said it is believed the seismic event occurred on the CVO mining lease.
“However it was not in close proximity to any mining activities and due to its location did not affect operations at Cadia Valley,” he said.
Senior seismologist with Geoscience Australia Steve Tatham said following investigations into the earth movement and discussions with CVO it was reposting the movement as a small earthquake.
“This can all be part of normal activity in an area which is part of a mining area where mineralisations form,” Mr Tatham said.
Mr McPaul said yesterday CVO was talking with neighbours living nearby who may have felt the seismic event.
When it was initially posted on the Geoscience Australia website the location was south of the Canobolas State Forest on land owned by Cadia.
Mr McPaul said CVO closely monitors seismic activity within the Cadia district with a network of over 50 sophisticated monitoring devices located across the operation.