Earthquake rattles Queensland coast
Australia-earthquake/Sydney (dpa) - The strongest earthquake in 80 years rocked the Queensland coast in Australia Thursday morning shaking houses and rattling windows.
The earthquake lasted between 15 seconds and 2 minutes and was measured at magnitude 5.3, but its centre was 100 kilometres offshore at a depth of 30 kilometres, Geoscience Australia reported.
Police said there were no reports of damage, but residents reported the shaking over 447 kilometres from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and north to Bundaberg.
The earthquake was on a fault line running down the east coast of Australia and is triggered as the continent advances northward by upto 7 centimetres a year, the ABC reported.
The Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat to Australia.
