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Abstract

On the morning of 15 November 1990 local time, Armidale and the area to the west of Armidale was shaken by a magnitude 3.2 earthquake. The epicentre was located at 30.39° S, 150.88° E and the depth of focus at 12 ± 7 km. As the epicentre was close to the Peel Fault an attempt was made to constrain the focal mechanism of this earthquake. The conventional method, which is based on the analysis of P wave polarities, was not applicable because the event was not strong enough. In an alternative method, the amplitudes of various seismic phases recorded at a number of stations well distributed in azimuth were compared with theoretical amplitudes calculated with the reflectivity method for a point shear dislocation in a layered medium. The differences between observed and calculated amplitudes were minimized as a function of fault strike, fault dip and direction of the slip vector. The analysis indicates that none of the possible fault planes had the strike of the Peel Fault. The solution suggests predominantly strike slip motion along two possible, steeply dipping fault planes. The inferred direction of the maximum compressional stress. is east-west which is in good agreement with other estimates of the stress field for eastern Australia.