Earthquakes Teaching Resource Bundle

Everything You Need to Teach the Science of Earthquakes

Check natural disaster lesson plans off your list! This complete pack of earthquake activities, plate tectonics diagrams, classroom posters and more printable PDFs for primary teachers has you covered with everything your year 6 students will need to learn about earthquakes this year.

With just one click, you can download nine cross-curricular teacher resources covering the layers of the Earth, the Earth’s natural resources, plate tectonics and more to explain seismic activity worldwide. In addition to three classroom posters, the activities in this pack include:

• Longitude and latitude plotting activity
• Natural resources word search
• ‘What are earthquakes’ reading passage with answer key
• Graphic organiser and newspaper article planning worksheet

When Was Australia’s Last Earthquake?

Teaching about natural disasters can cause worries for some children, who fear they will happen in your community.

If your students are worried about earthquakes, explaining how many earthquakes occur in Australia and when the last major earthquake happened may be helpful to calm their nerves.

The good news: Major earthquakes in Australia are relatively rare! In fact, only about 100 earthquakes with a seismic magnitude of 3 or more are recorded in Australia each year. To put that in context, scientists do not consider an earthquake to be ‘major’ unless it has a magnitude of 7.5 or higher on the Richter scale used to measure the size of these natural disasters.

Earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.0 or more on the seismic magnitude scale happen only every 10 years in Australia.

The last ‘major’ earthquake in Australia occurred in the Tasman Sea in December 2004. It had a magnitude of 8.1. Fortunately, the earthquake’s epicentre was 600 km from Macquarie Island, and there was no damage to homes and no one was hurt.

Australia’s largest recorded earthquake on land was in 1988 at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. That quake had an estimated magnitude of 6.6.

More Natural Disaster Resources for the Classroom

Extending your lessons beyond earthquakes? Explore more natural disaster resources created for teachers by teachers!

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