If the only officer manning screens inside the National Earthquake Alerts Centre sees things are going a little too smoothly - it's usually not a good sign.
This is because when normally spiky lines or seismic waves turn straight and smooth, it means the Earth's "background noise" is going quiet.
The stillness is almost immediately followed by an initial tremor, which means an earthquake is about to occur.
In case of a significant earthquake somewhere in Australia, the officer on duty has 10 minutes to report it on Geoscience Australia's public-facing website and alert the National Situation Room in Barton.
If the earthquake is potentially tsunami-genic then the Bureau of Meteorology must be also notified.
Chief scientist Steve Hill said there was about a 20-second delay from the actual time of the event. "Our real time is close to real time."
Geoscience Australia is the government agency housing the earthquake alerts centre.
"Obviously, the earthquake happens before we can do anything," Dr Hill said.
"But what our information does is informs the public, 'Yes, it was an earthquake, it wasn't an explosion, it wasn't something nefarious'."
The sole officer on duty, referred to as Eddie by his colleagues when The Canberra Times visited the centre, was about to finish his eight-hour shift.
Three such officers, taking over shifts across 24 hours, are always supported by a senior officer and an admin officer to interpret what's unfolding on screens, and speak to the press.
Additionally, seismic activity notifications appear on the duty officer's phone, which means they are free to take breaks and are not "chained to their desks".
Operations manager Allen Earl said real-time detection, analysis and alerting provided "critical information and advice about earthquakes of national and international significance" to the government, emergency managers, and major infrastructure managers.
He said the centre received data from more than 100 seismic stations in the country and more than 500 global stations.
"24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all significant earthquakes are [recorded] in the Geoscience Australia earthquake catalog, accessible by the public, researchers and other interested parties through our website," Mr Earl said.
"Australia is a big continent and our seismometers, they are not everywhere. We are also relying on the public."
Mr Earl said felt reports, or responses to public questionnaires, were highly valuable to the earthquake centre to adjust the "extent and level of ground shaking" in records.
"It's all hands on deck for those moments and [earthquakes] can happen at any time," Dr Hill said.
He said Canberra was in an interesting spot, believed to be a quite seismically-active part of Australia.
"We tend to want to think that Australia is fairly benign because we're away from [tectonic plate] boundaries, but we have a fairly strong record of earthquakes," Dr Hill said.
He said the Australian continent rested on the world's fastest-moving tectonic plates, moving seven centimetres north every year.
"It's the same pace at which your fingernails grow," Dr Hill said.
Seismic experts believe the 100-ish stations around Australia are not enough to report all seismic activity.
"[A] few more in [the ocean] would be nice, but that is problematic," one expert said.
Home to the moon rock
The Geoscience Australia building in Symonston also holds the only piece of moon matter in the southern hemisphere.
It's black piece of basalt rock from the surface of the moon was brought back by a geologist on the Apollo 17 mission.
"It's quite amazing," Dr Hill said.
Dr Verity Normington, director of strategic science, said the original object weighed eight kilos and was cut into smaller pieces to be shared around the world.
"There are 11 you can touch," she said.
The one in Canberra weighs 21 grams, is about two inches wide and smooth to touch.
The lunar artefact has been touched by hundreds of school children visiting the agency, and most recently, the Prime Minister.
The moon rock's composition resembles earthly matter, unlike the Georgetown meteorite, which is made of iron-rich material that cost the agency upwards of $100,000 to keep.
Dr Hill narrated the story of how two prospectors looking for gold dug out the heavy 4.5 billion-year-old object and brought it to Geoscience Australia to verify its origins.
"They could have sold it overseas for a lot of money. It was really good of them to actually go, 'We would like this to stay in Australia'. We applied for a national arts and heritage grant to be able to purchase it," he said.
Library of dirt holds pre-historic secrets
Another lesser-known area of the agency's functions is the repository room.
It's a large space with rows of columns - about three storeys high - which store upwards of 95,000 boxes of ore and dirt samples, some of which have been extracted from so deep in the earth that they date back a billion years.
The oldest of these samples were obtained through mining companies drilling in the 1930s.
"This is what dreams are made of," Dr Hill said.
"We often gaze in amazement at the stars because we can see them. We sometimes forget how wonderous our own planet is. The resources we need for life come from our planet and understanding what's underneath is absolutely critical."
The scientist said the drilling approach to obtain samples was often seen as a "lie detector".
"Each of these samples has a little window into what lies beneath Australia and that informs our decisions about how we live with that bit of country be it for mineral resources, energy, water," Dr Hill said.
