Earthquake near Belfair, 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. In Belfair, 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Allyn, Navy Yard City, Bethel, Erlands Point-Kitsap Lake, Port Orchard, East Port Orchard.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 16 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 930,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 660,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 59× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 16 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 4.1 on 2017-02-23 — about 2,500 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 · 39 km SSE of this epicentre Feb 28, 2001
2. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 36 km ESE of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
3. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 11 km SSE of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
4. 5.8 Puget Sound area, Washington · 24 km SSW of this epicentre Feb 15, 1946
5. 5.3 Eastern Olympic Peninsula, Washington · 37 km NNW of this epicentre Mar 17, 1904

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 47.4892, -122.8273. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.8 5 km SW of Des Moines, Washington 22:04 UTC
2. 1.6 Puget Sound region, Washington 10:04 UTC
3. 1.6 8 km WSW of Home, Washington 21:26 UTC
4. 1.5 7 km WNW of Lofall, Washington 21:34 UTC
5. 1.9 7 km SSW of Port Ludlow, Washington 18:17 UTC
6. 1.9 7 km WNW of Lofall, Washington 23:46 UTC
7. 2.3 5 km WNW of Wauna, Washington 20:24 UTC
8. 1.5 8 km WNW of Lofall, Washington 11:44 UTC
9. 3.7 7 km WNW of Lofall, Washington 08:08 UTC
10. 1.5 5 km W of Gorst, Washington 22:54 UTC
11. 1.5 3 km W of Hoodsport, Washington 03:32 UTC
12. 1.7 6 km E of Quilcene, Washington 17:19 UTC
13. 1.6 5 km SW of Port Ludlow, Washington 18:23 UTC
14. 1.8 6 km NNW of Kingston, Washington 21:43 UTC
15. 1.5 1 km NNE of Lakewood, Washington 08:59 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 16:58 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.