On 22 January 1988, a sequence of destructive earthquakes measuring 6.2, 6.3, and 6.6 struck southwest of Tennant Creek, Australia which was felt as far north as Darwin and in other regions of the country.

On the south and west sides of it are moderately active mid-ocean ridges which run through the Indian Ocean.

Both of these areas are a part of the North Australian Craton, which has formed a single stationary block of crust for 1,700 million years.

Cambrian sedimentary platform sequences of the Palaeozoic Wiso Basin overlaps the Tennant Creek inlier on the western side near the fault scarps located in the region forming an extensive transition zone.

[8] The focal depths of the Tennant Creek sequence ranged from 3.5 to 6.5 km, which is deeper than the thickness of the Cambrian platform near the epicenter.

The east-northeast trending Western LS scarp did display a left lateral strike-slip motion but dip-slip was the dominant characteristic.