Wider Gippsland’s second earthquake in as many weeks had no apparent connection to a 3.1 magnitude earthquake felt south-west of Moe last Thursday.
Geoscience Australia recorded a 2.8 magnitude tremor in Pakenham at 11.39pm on Tuesday, followed by a 1.3 magnitude aftershock at 3.18am Wednesday morning.
Duty seismologist Steve Tatham said with more than 50 kilometres and five days between the respective epicentres, there was “not really a connection between the two events”.
“While both events occurred from the same general cause – a local build up of stress in the rocks, which the faults can’t cope with and let go – they happened in completely different fault systems,” Mr Tatham said.
“And with that time frame between incidents, this is really a coincidence.”
Mr Tatham said Tuesday night’s quake attracted reports of small degrees of shaking from as far away as Drouin.
The majority of local readers who responded to a related question on The Express Facebook page said they did not feel the Pakenham quake.
