QuakeIndex

explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6md

3 km S of Monroe, Washington

· -0.5 km deep · released about 8.1 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Snohomish County 30 kmKing County 39 kmKitsap County 55 kmIsland County 64 kmSkagit County 75 kmPierce County 87 kmChelan County 101 kmMason County 104 kmSan Juan County 113 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 1.6 (md)
Depth
-0.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Snohomish County, 30 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1762 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 8.1 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 120× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 8.1 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 47.8250, -121.9742. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Snohomish County, WA 30 km (19 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Snohomish County
King County, WA 39 km (24 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near King County
Kitsap County, WA 55 km (34 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Kitsap County
Island County, WA 64 km (40 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Island County
Skagit County, WA 75 km (47 mi) S of here earthquakes near Skagit County
Pierce County, WA 87 km (54 mi) N of here earthquakes near Pierce County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington
  2. 2.7 4 km E of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington
  3. 1.6 3 km N of Kingston, Washington
  4. 1.8 8 km SSW of Sultan, Washington
  5. 2.3 3 km WNW of Duvall, Washington
  6. 1.6 6 km ENE of Mirrormont, Washington
  7. 1.8 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington
  8. 1.6 6 km W of Wilderness Rim, Washington
  9. 1.6 Puget Sound region, Washington
  10. 1.5 0 km SSE of Wilderness Rim, Washington
  11. 1.5 4 km SSW of Clinton, Washington
  12. 1.6 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington
  13. 1.7 4 km SW of White Center, Washington
  14. 1.8 3 km WSW of White Center, Washington
  15. 1.8 3 km NNW of Picnic Point, 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 28,000 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.