As Australia does not sit anywhere near a fault line, how did it experience an earthquake today?

Question

As Australia does not sit anywhere near a fault line, how did it experience an earthquake today?

In: 2

Answer 1

You can have fault lines very far from the tectonic boundaries. These are caused by internal stresses in the tectonic plate. Quite often these stresses build up at the center of the plate as the different sides of the plate is moved in different directions by the surrounding plates and the current of magma under them. Most famous such fault in the volcanos of Hawaii which take place in the middle of the Pacific plate as far from any tectonic plate boundry as you get. But most tectonic plates do have internal fault lines.