QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7ml

3 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington

· 12 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Skagit County 27 kmSnohomish County 37 kmIsland County 48 kmWhatcom County 61 kmSan Juan County 79 kmKitsap County 87 kmKing County 94 kmChelan County 119 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
12 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Skagit County, 27 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 568 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 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 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 92× 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.

Where

Epicentre 48.3167, -122.0728. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Skagit County, WA 27 km (17 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Skagit County
Snohomish County, WA 37 km (23 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Snohomish County
Island County, WA 48 km (30 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Island County
Whatcom County, WA 61 km (38 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Whatcom County
San Juan County, WA 79 km (49 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near San Juan County
Kitsap County, WA 87 km (54 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Kitsap County

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. 2.8 8 km NW of Verlot, Washington
  2. 1.7 1 km ENE of Granite Falls, Washington
  3. 2.1 1 km ESE of Burlington, Washington
  4. 1.5 2 km ENE of Granite Falls, Washington
  5. 1.7 2 km E of Lake Stevens, Washington
  6. 1.7 5 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington
  7. 1.8 3 km NNE of Burlington, Washington
  8. 1.7 2 km ESE of Burlington, Washington
  9. 1.7 10 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  10. 2.2 9 km N of Hamilton, Washington
  11. 2.2 3 km ESE of Burlington, Washington
  12. 2.9 8 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  13. 2.1 8 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  14. 2.4 9 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington
  15. 2.4 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 22,000 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.