2021 Mansfield earthquake
An earthquake struck approximately 53 kilometres SSE of the town of Mansfield (in the vicinity of the township of Woods Point), in the Victorian Alps of Australia on 22 September 2021, at 09:15 local time. The earthquake measured 5.9 on the moment magnitude scale. The earthquake caused minor structural damage in parts of Melbourne and left one person injured. The earthquake was also felt in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania. The earthquake was substantially stronger than the 1989 Newcastle earthquake that measured 5.6 and killed 13 people. Tectonic setting The Australian landmass is situated in the Australian Plate, far from any known active plate boundary, where most of the world's earthquakes occur. Such earthquakes at the plate boundary are known as interplate earthquakes. In Australia, earthquakes occurring within the Australian Plate are known as intraplate earthquakes because they happen within a tectonic plate rather than at the boundary. The earthquake is situated in the Lachlan Fold Belt, an orogenic belt consisting of folded and faulted strata. This zone formed as a result of plate convergence occurring at the eastern boundary of the supercontinent Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic. From the Neoproterozoic to Early Devonian, the region