The 1979 Cadoux earthquake and intraplate stress in Western Australia

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Abstract
The 1979 Cadoux earthquake (magnitude Ms ∼ 6.0), which caused over $4 million damage in 1979, occurred in the Southwest Seismic Zone (SWSZ) of Western Australia and produced a shallow dipping thrust fault with an average strike close to north‐south. The fault length was approximately 15 km and the maximum displacement close to 1 m. The seismic moment is estimated to be 1.8 ±0.1 X 1018 Nm and the earthquake was, like the 1968 Meckering earthquake, caused by east‐west compressive stress in the crust. Aftershocks of the Cadoux earthquake are still continuing (1986) at the northern and southern ends of the area affected by the main earthquake; strain‐release data from the aftershocks indicate that significant strain energy is yet to be released in the region. Overcoring measurements in the SWSZ indicated high stress (up to 30 MPa) at shallow depths (∼ 10 m). Near the epicentre of the Cadoux earthquake overcoring measurements revealed stress levels ranging from about 4 MPa, less than 1 km from the fault trace, to about 20 MPa at 15 km from the fault. This difference in stress at the two locations is much larger than the stress drop associated with the Cadoux earthquake (∼ 1 MPa) obtained from seismological observations. However, the maximum compressive stress direction is consistent with the direction of the P‐axis obtained from the focal mechanism. Reliable hydro fracturing results, from a depth of 65 m, were similar to the stress directions and magnitudes obtained from overcoring measurements made at the same site. It appears that the crust in the SWSZ is under compressive stress and that earthquake activity releases this stress in small areas rather than along linear fault zones. Shallow earthquakes of similar magnitude could well take place in the SWSZ during the next 50 years.

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