A magnitude 6.1 earthquake has struck the Australian outback near Alice Springs early on Saturday morning.
The quake is unusually powerful for Australia.
It struck just before 4am, about 460 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs, at about 10 kilometres deep, the US Geological survey says.
There have been no reports of damage or casualties, and no risk of tsunami.
"It occurred in the middle of the desert and as far as we can tell it was far from any community and there have been no reports of injuries or damage," Northern Territory Police duty superintendent Angela Stringer told Reuters.
"From a geological perspective, it's pretty spectacular but we don't see it as anything more than that at this time."
The desert area southwest of Alice Springs and world-famous Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is sparsely populated. The nearest indigenous community settlements were well over 100 km away from the earthquake's epicentre.
The last major tremor recorded in Australia was in 2012 when a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck in the far north of South Australia state. That quake was the largest recorded in the country in 15 years.
Newshub. / Reuters
