Earthquake near Riverton, 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: Tukwila, SeaTac, Bryn Mawr-Skyway, Burien, Boulevard Park, Renton.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 10 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 1,500,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 95× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 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 22,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 6 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 6.8 The 2001 Nisqually, Washington Earthquake · 49 km SW of this epicentre Feb 28, 2001
2. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 19 km SSW of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
3. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 36 km WSW of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
4. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 44 km NE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
5. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 46 km NE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932

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 47.4755, -122.2903. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.2 3 km ENE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 20:05 UTC
2. 1.6 3 km ENE of Echo Lake, Washington 11:32 UTC
3. 2.9 4 km S of Monroe, Washington 10:41 UTC
4. 2.0 2 km N of North Bend, Washington 01:30 UTC
5. 2.0 2 km NE of Black Diamond, Washington 04:50 UTC
6. 2.8 2 km S of Ravensdale, Washington 04:35 UTC
7. 2.4 0 km NE of Enetai, Washington 15:30 UTC
8. 2.0 2 km NE of Enetai, Washington 18:02 UTC
9. 1.7 3 km SW of Bainbridge Island, Washington 21:00 UTC
10. 1.6 2 km SSE of Bainbridge Island, Washington 20:14 UTC
11. 1.5 2 km NE of Enetai, Washington 17:46 UTC
12. 1.6 3 km SSW of Bainbridge Island, Washington 16:57 UTC
13. 1.9 1 km ENE of Enetai, Washington 16:55 UTC
14. 3.2 0 km NNE of Enetai, Washington 16:27 UTC
15. 1.6 2 km SW of Elk Plain, Washington 03:13 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 07:07 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.