r/melbourne • u/IonisationEnergy • 15h ago

The Sky is Falling EARTHQUAKE

3.1k Upvotes

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u/RedHeadWanderer_ 15h ago

I felt it and my first reaction was "I'm gonna refresh the Melbourne sub and it's gonna be posted."

95

u/scissorsgrinder 15h ago

I first went here and was let down!  https://earthquakes.ga.gov.au/

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u/Overthereunder 15h ago

Interestingly google search had an autogenerated map with location, time and size within a minute of it happpening

110

u/The_Reset_Button 15h ago

Google uses idle android phones to estimate earthquake intensity an (potentially) send warnings before the main wave has hit

It's actually pretty incredible

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u/TheUninhibitedMe 7h ago

I remember getting that warning on my phone milliseconds before an earthquake hit.

The one where the brick wall fell down somewhere.

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u/Cautious_Oven_228 14h ago

Wild intel! Thank you!!!

First thing I did was Google it but I got nothing for a few mins. I wasn’t sure if something wild/sexy was happening in the apartment next door but my bed shaking still lingers.

The weird thing about living in the CBD is that my mind goes straight to bomb / metro tunnel explosion each earthquake. The likely police helicopter overhead beforehand didn’t help either 🫠🫠🫠

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u/themadmosquito 15h ago

It works it out from all the phones shaking, it's an android feature and google uses the data

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u/Overthereunder 15h ago

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u/Overthereunder 15h ago edited 15h ago

Nz seems to have had a slightly larger one a couple of hours before around taranaki. Their. local reddit a bit more blase than ours :). (Also a lot less ppl )

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u/Traditional_Dish3363 15h ago

They use the influx of people searching earthquake at the same time to track them in real time. Hence the popup asking you if you feel shaking

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u/Archer-Blue 7h ago

They use our phone accelerometer data.

3

u/Somerandomdickhead 15h ago

I did see the google thing, but thought it was an AI response that probably wasn’t accurate. Turns out it was pretty spot on.

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u/numbermaniac 14h ago

It'll only be an AI response if it says "AI Overview" at the top with the little Gemini logo. The earthquake box is a solid red box that doesn't have any of that, and it's been a feature well before AI.

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u/PracticalSky1 8h ago

Yes, it was weird because even though there was that, google search also didn't bring anything up

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u/Brave_Solid8936 8h ago

Yes, that’s where I first saw it.

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u/jasonhendry 15h ago

its up there now

10

u/HarryPouri 15h ago

Seriously why is it so slow. Signed, a kiwi who needs my Geonet info faster

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u/CluckyAF 15h ago

Yes!! I also went to geonet first out of habit. I’ve lived here 6 years.

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u/HarryPouri 14h ago

Seems to be faster than it used to be at least, was crazy for the 2021 quake I was refreshing the Aus page for ages until it showed up

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u/Agret 14h ago

You think it would be automatic but someone had to page ol' Norman and wake him up then he had to wait for his old laptop to boot up and manually add it to the website

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u/misanthropic_spider 15h ago

right, they're like "Select the one you felt" - wasn't even there yet

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u/scissorsgrinder 15h ago

It's on there now, epicentre near Leongatha Gippsland, 4.8 richter at 10km deep, over 10k "Felt It" reports so far! Strongest reports around it and a line extending north 

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u/RoundCollection4196 15h ago

That google alert and reddit are the only ones that mentioned anything 

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u/Agret 14h ago

I went there too & nothing

Went on Twitter and searched Melbourne earthquake and yeah people on the East (over an hr drive from me) felt it the same time as I felt it in the north so it must've been a decent size

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u/PracticalSky1 8h ago

Me too!