Earthquake near Ames Lake, WA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 8 km (5 mi) from the epicentre. In Ames Lake, 4 km away, the estimate is intensity II (weak). 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.

Likely felt in: Fall City 5 km, intensity II · City of Sammamish 8 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.1 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,100,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.1 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

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.6 on 2019-07-12 — about 32,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 48 km SW of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
2. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 18 km NNE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
3. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 18 km NNE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
4. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 44 km N of this epicentre May 15, 1954
5. 5.0 3 km WSW of Des Moines, Washington · 41 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 47.6065, -121.9282. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.6 5 km WSW of North Bend, Washington 15:43 UTC
2. 1.6 3 km NE of Mirrormont, Washington 00:30 UTC
3. 1.6 1 km E of Shoreline, Washington 16:16 UTC
4. 1.7 8 km SSW of Baring, Washington 06:03 UTC
5. 1.9 3 km NW of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 02:06 UTC
6. 1.9 3 km SW of Redmond, Washington 23:28 UTC
7. 2.0 14 km ENE of Tanner, Washington 08:31 UTC
8. 1.7 3 km ENE of Cathcart, Washington 06:31 UTC
9. 1.6 6 km NE of Fall City, Washington 13:06 UTC
10. 2.0 6 km E of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 12:12 UTC
11. 1.5 14 km S of Skykomish, Washington 03:51 UTC
12. 1.7 2 km NNW of Algona, Washington 03:09 UTC
13. 1.9 2 km NNW of Algona, Washington 14:53 UTC
14. 2.7 5 km NE of Fall City, Washington 17:20 UTC
15. 1.9 12 km ENE of Enumclaw, Washington 23:37 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:46 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.