QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

6 km SE of Oso, Washington

· 11 km deep · released about 41 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Snohomish County 21 kmSkagit County 30 kmIsland County 60 kmWhatcom County 68 kmKing County 82 kmKitsap County 88 kmSan Juan County 97 kmChelan County 101 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 2.1 (ml)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Snohomish County, 21 km SSE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2126 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 41 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 370,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 260,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 23× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 41 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 48.2278, -121.8612. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Snohomish County, WA 21 km (13 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Snohomish County
Skagit County, WA 30 km (18 mi) S of here earthquakes near Skagit County
Island County, WA 60 km (38 mi) E of here earthquakes near Island County
Whatcom County, WA 68 km (42 mi) S of here earthquakes near Whatcom County
King County, WA 82 km (51 mi) N of here earthquakes near King County
Kitsap County, WA 88 km (55 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Kitsap County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 5 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington
  2. 1.8 3 km NNE of Burlington, Washington
  3. 1.7 2 km ESE of Burlington, Washington
  4. 1.7 10 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  5. 2.2 9 km N of Hamilton, Washington
  6. 2.2 3 km ESE of Burlington, Washington
  7. 2.9 8 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  8. 2.1 8 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  9. 2.4 9 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  10. 2.4 9 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  11. 1.6 10 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  12. 2.0 9 km N of Hamilton, Washington
  13. 2.6 8 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  14. 2.5 9 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  15. 1.6 9 km NNE of Hamilton, 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 4.6 on 2019-07-12 — it released about 5,400 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.