Port Hedland earthquake: Pilbara town struck by a small earthquake in the early hours of Thursday morning

The Pilbara town of Port Hedland was struck by a series of earthquakes on Thursday, with the latest hitting just before 3pm.

According to the Geoscience Australia website, the town was first struck by the 3.1 magnitude earthquake at about 2.17am.

The quake — which only had a depth of about 10km — occurred less than 50km south of Port Hedland.

The Geoscience Australia website indicates 72 people felt and have reported the earthquake so far.

Those who have reported the earthquake felt “moderate to light ground shaking.”

However, the Geoscience Australia site shows two other earthquakes have been recorded near the town in the past few hours.

One quake struck about 11.39am; the other was recorded at about 2.57pm.

The most recent quake had a magnitude of about 3.6.

Earlier on Thursday Dr Hadi Ghasemi, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, described the first quake at 2.17am as a “shallow small earthquake.”

“It was less than 50km south of Port Hedland, the epicentre of the event,” Dr Ghasemi said.

“Most of the felt reports that we have received are from Port Hedland, and they all indicate a light to moderate level of ground shaking, which is what we would expect from this size (of earthquake).”

Dr Ghasemi said he was not aware of any reports of damage from the first earthquake.

Several earthquakes have affected Port Hedland over the years.

Last year, a 2.3 magnitude earthquake occurred south of Pippingarra, with multiple residents in South and Port Hedland reporting that their houses shook from the natural phenomena.

The last significant earthquake in the region happened on November 13, 2021, when a magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred 148km south of Port Hedland.