The quake was picked up by 18 stations in the state and Victoria and South Australia, pinpointing the location to around 50 kilometres offshore.

It occured four kilometres below sea level and reached a magnitude of 3.2 shortly after midnight.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Hadi Ghasemi said the government organisation hadn't received any reports of the earthquake from residents.

"We have registered at least 48 events for that particular region," he said.

"All of those earthquakes were small and shallow, similar to this recent one."

Mr Ghasemi said 17 of the 48 quakes in the past two years had magnitudes larger than three, placing this incident in the top third of the group.

"So I would say every one or two years you would expect a magnitude of three or above in that area," he said.

The largest earthquake in Tasmanian history occured in January of 1892 and reached a magnitude of 6.9.

Mr Ghasemi said while these incidents can occur, large magnitude quakes are rare in Australia due to the continent's tectonic settings.

"The Australian plate that we are sitting on is basically moving north-east and colliding with plates nearby," he said.

"That causes a buildup of stress within the continent itself that's eventually released in the form of earthquakes."