A REPEAT of Wednesday morning's earthquake which shook Ballarat and much of the south-east of Australia can never be ruled out, despite its unusual nature.
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The quake, which measured 5.9 on the Richter Scale, is the largest ever recorded in mainland Australia since October 14, 1968 in Western Australia.
The magnitude of the seismic event was felt in full effect by what is believed to be Ballarat's only permanent seismometer at Mount Clear College's Earth Ed Centre.
The image recorded shows three distinct jumps in seismic activity around 9am on Wednesday.
Mount Clear College Earth Ed leading teacher Trish Dower said the graph showed the three main waves.
"The first movement is the primary wave which travels through the earth, the bigger section is the second wave which is damage - if we had have been in Melbourne and Mansfield that would have been much higher - and the third is as the surface wave comes through," she said.
Mount Clear's Earth Ed Centre is one of only six in Victoria and aims to teach students about how the earth is formed and moves over time. The students use the machine to demonstrate how earthquakes are measured but it is a permanent device which remains in active use all of the time.
"This is by far the biggest one we've seen," Ms Dower said. "We did get a register when the Christchurch earthquake hit."
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She said as Australia was not on a tectonic plate, it was an unusual event to have such a large quake in this country. However, as Victoria is home the world's third largest volcanic field, it could happen again.
Federation University School of Engineering, Information Technology and Physical Sciences' Ander Guinea Maysounave said every year Australia experienced about 80 earthquakes a year, most barely rated a mention.
He said while Gippsland was most susceptible, volcanic areas like the western half of the state meant similar events could occur here.
"On this side we have the vertical faults but don't have the mountains," he said. "What we do have though is lava fields. Most people don't realise we live in an active volcanic region.
"There's some evidence there is activity between Bendigo and Daylesford - this is best demonstrated by the hot springs we see in Hepburn. There could be some evidence of some movement there, but more research needs to be undertaken.
"Any day there is a possibility that a volcano might pop out of the ground in Western Victoria. It is very likely something will happen, it could be a year from now or it could be 40,000 years from now."
