Mining link to quake questioned

Columbia University's Christian Klose said the removal of 0.5 gigatonnes of coal and 2.3 gigatonnes of water at Newcastle between 1801 and 1989 had destabilised faults and changed stress fields in the earth's crust, triggering the earthquake that killed 13 people in 1989.

Dr Klose said he had identified more than 200 human-caused temblors, most of which occurred after World War II. He said two-thirds were the result of mining, with the remainder coming from dam construction.

Professor of Civil Engineering at Newcastle University, Robert Melchers, who led the NSW government review of the disaster, said there were a host of other causes.

Professor Melchers said while it was feasible for large-scale removal of coal to change the stresses, he rejected Dr Klose's conclusion that mining was the cause of the earthquake.

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"There is no real evidence that large-scale coal mining causes a significant increase in earthquake activity," he said.

"If that was the case we should be seeing a lot more earthquake activity in this region, in any coal mining region. I don't think the evidence is there."

Dr Klose also warned the geosequestration of carbon dioxide, or the injection of carbon dioxide underground, could result in seismic activity.

A similar project is about to get under way in a former gas field in the Otway basin in southwest Victoria.