Earthquake near Lake Marcel-Stillwater, WA

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Carnation, Duvall, Ames Lake, Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Cottage Lake, City of Sammamish.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 17 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 870,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 620,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 55× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 17 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log₁₀E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

For this area

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 4 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 7 km NNE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
2. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 8 km NE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
3. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 34 km NNW of this epicentre May 15, 1954
4. 5.0 3 km WSW of Des Moines, Washington · 49 km SW of this epicentre Jan 29, 1995

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 47.6995, -121.9070. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

57 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

1. 1.5 1 km N of Carnation, Washington 19:19 UTC
2. 2.2 10 km E of Verlot, Washington 02:22 UTC
3. 1.8 3 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 23:06 UTC
4. 1.6 0 km SSW of Beaux Arts Village, Washington 04:48 UTC
5. 2.2 11 km E of Verlot, Washington 08:05 UTC
6. 1.8 4 km WSW of Inglewood-Finn Hill, Washington 06:24 UTC
7. 2.5 3 km ESE of Wilderness Rim, Washington 21:49 UTC
8. 1.5 2 km ENE of Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Washington 10:16 UTC
9. 1.6 1 km NE of Yarrow Point, Washington 19:35 UTC
10. 1.7 3 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 23:29 UTC
11. 1.8 8 km NE of Bainbridge Island, Washington 08:25 UTC
12. 2.0 3 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 23:35 UTC
13. 2.6 6 km WSW of Skykomish, Washington 09:56 UTC
14. 1.6 2 km SE of Maltby, Washington 11:30 UTC
15. 1.9 2 km NE of Tanner, Washington 10:39 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 10:02 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.