Earthquakes strike Mid North five times in a week

The most recent earthquake was only this morning when a 2.0 magnitude earthquake hit Jamestown at a depth of five kilometres with 12 felt reports.

But the first of the action hit on Saturday evening with a 1.9 magnitude earthquake at a depth of one KM followed by another at the same measurements on Tuesday evening.

After 4PM on Wednesday a 4.2 magnitude earthquake at a depth of five KMs hit with over 200 felt reports and many reporting damage to their homes and on Thursday afternoon a 1.9 magnitude hit at a depth of five KMs.

Mount Barker also recorded a 2.7 magnitude earthquake at a depth of seven KMs on Monday.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Phil Cummins said the Mount Barker and Jamestown 4.2 earthquakes were both "relatively shallow".

"Meaning the first few kilometers of depth within the earth's crust," he said.

"Both of them will likely occurred due to the slow buildup of stress that gets transmitted from the plate boundaries where there are tectonic forces exerted by collision of Australia with the New Guinea plate and New Zealand plate and even as far away as the India Asia collision.

"South Australia has a somewhat elevated level of earthquake activity compared to other areas of Australia, so it's not surprising to see earthquakes occur there even within a few days."

He said there were over 450 felt reports on the Mount Barker earthquake and over 200 for Jamestown also with reports of damage.

"Our reports of damage most are quite minor, although there is one report of a chimney falling down," he said.

"And another report of a relatively large crack that someone said they could stick their finger in their wall.

"Normally an earthquake has to be about magnitude five before we expect any kind of structural damage."

Mr Cummins said they appreciated people submitting felt reports on their website.

"It does give us extra information that complements what we measure from our instruments, so they are very important to us," he said.

Wardle Co property manager Jo Lawler said she was in the office when the earthquake hit and it was scary.

"I was working in the street with three co workers and we literally went straight out the front door to have a look around and to see what what was going on," she said.

"And every other person in every shop in the Main Street was doing the same thing, whether it be a customer or business owner or employees.

"On Wednesday, probably half an hour after it happened, the phone started ringing and emails started coming in from tenants reporting damage and sending us photos.

"We have had probably a dozen properties in Jamestown that have reported damage and my own investment property also had a reasonable amount of damage."

Jamestown resident Cate Pearce said she was in the Foodland when the earthquake hit and products began falling from shelves.

"It was like a loaded semi had pranged through back of the shop," she said.

"The earth moved, the ground moved, things fell off the shelves and it was just crazy.

"It's probably the biggest one that I've ever felt in the area - it was unreal."

She said there was damages to her home where the walls had moved away from where they joined the ceiling.

"The cornices have all come away and there is lots of dust and grit coming down the walls," she said.

"We have big cracks and I am not sure if it will be covered by insurance because they use to say it was an an act of god - though I am not sure they can say that anymore.

"I grew up on a farm about 10kms northeast of Jamestown and I remember quite regularly rumbles happening.

"I can remember quite a few occasions where we had fairly violent earth tremors but not like this last one - that was crazy."

Ms Pearce said it was normal for the area if they looked at the history of earthquakes.