QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

8 km NNW of Olympia, Washington

· -2.0 km deep · released about 11 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Thurston County 21 kmMason County 32 kmPierce County 60 kmKitsap County 62 kmGrays Harbor County 67 kmLewis County 73 kmJefferson County 89 kmPacific County 89 kmKing County 93 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.7 (ml)
Depth
-2.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Thurston County, 21 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2783 days ago

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

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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.

Where

Epicentre 47.1142, -122.9388. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Thurston County, WA 21 km (13 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Thurston County
Mason County, WA 32 km (20 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Mason County
Pierce County, WA 60 km (37 mi) W of here earthquakes near Pierce County
Kitsap County, WA 62 km (39 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Kitsap County
Grays Harbor County, WA 67 km (42 mi) E of here earthquakes near Grays Harbor County
Lewis County, WA 73 km (45 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Lewis County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 12 km S of Shelton, Washington
  2. 1.5 1 km E of Dash Point, Washington
  3. 1.6 10 km S of Shelton, Washington
  4. 1.6 2 km WNW of Bethel, Washington
  5. 2.5 1 km E of Bethel, Washington
  6. 1.7 Puget Sound region, Washington
  7. 1.6 11 km S of Shelton, Washington
  8. 1.6 5 km WNW of DuPont, Washington
  9. 1.7 4 km SSW of Bethel, Washington
  10. 1.9 0 km N of Vaughn, Washington
  11. 1.5 5 km W of Gorst, Washington
  12. 1.6 2 km SW of Elk Plain, Washington
  13. 1.5 5 km WSW of Shelton, Washington
  14. 1.7 5 km W of Burley, Washington
  15. 1.6 2 km SW of Elk Plain, Washington

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

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.1 on 2017-02-23 — it released about 3,800 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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