On the morning of August 16th, the largest earthquake to strike mainland Queensland in nearly a century occurred, registering in as a magnitude 5.6 quake. This earthquake struck at a depth of 9 kilometers and showed a regional compressional environment. Today's video will discuss why this earthquake occurred and general earthquakes in Australia through the knowledge and analysis of a geologist. Thumbnail Photo Credit: Google Earth, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image Landsat / Copernicus. This image was overlaid with text and then overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo). A special thanks to the EarthquakeSim YouTube channel for granting me permission to use clips of his footage! Video Sources from the EarthquakeSim YouTube channel: [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTq4vNNgkNk Subscribe to EarthquakeSim at: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthquakeSim If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] U.S. Geological Survey [2] © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2025, CC BY 4.0. This source was only used determine the official location given for the Aug 16 2025 M5.6 Queensland earthquake, the average rate of earthquakes across all of mainland Australia, and for the last greater than M5.6 earthquake to strike Queensland and its location. [3] Quigley, M. C., Cupper, M. L., & Sandiford, M. (2006). Quaternary faults of south-central Australia: Palaeoseismicity, slip rates and origin. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 53(2), 285–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120090500499271 0:00 Queensland Earthquake 1:45 Australia's Earthquakes 2:13 Geologic Setting 3:03 Reverse & Normal Faults 4:05 Likely Aftershocks