An earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale shook southwestern Australia Wednesday night.
The Australian Associated Press Thursday quoted a seismologist as saying that it was the largest of its kind in at least 50 years.
According to the report, the Australian Seismology Center said the quake occurred in the Southern Ocean about 1,000 km south of Albany and was widely felt in the Albany and Esperance areas, but "it wasn't large enough to have caused damage along the coast, or a tsunami."
"But it was quite an interesting earthquake because it is thelargest earthquake to have occurred where it did," the seismologist said.
Australia is almost free from any considerable earthquakes. No damaging quake occurred in the history.
(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2001)
