Earthquake near Everett, WA

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 58 km (36 mi) from the epicentre. In Everett, 44 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.

Likely felt in: Darrington 19 km, intensity III · Arlington 23 km, intensity III · Lake Stevens 35 km, intensity II · Sedro-Woolley 36 km, intensity II · Marysville 37 km, intensity II · Mount Vernon 38 km, intensity II · Everett 44 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1.9 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 89,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,800× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.4 about 1.9 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 4× more

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 59 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.6 Near Marblemount, Washington · 40 km NE of this epicentre Aug 18, 1915
2. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 35 km SSW of this epicentre May 15, 1954
3. 5.0 6 km W of Conway, Washington · 43 km W of this epicentre Jan 26, 1957

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 48.2997, -121.8520. 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. 1.5 3 km SSE of Stanwood, Washington 06:47 UTC
2. 1.6 10 km ESE of Hamilton, Washington 05:39 UTC
3. 1.6 3 km NNW of Oso, Washington 17:44 UTC
4. 1.6 Washington 00:05 UTC
5. 3.4 2 km SSE of Stanwood, Washington 00:47 UTC
6. 1.6 3 km WNW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington 17:10 UTC
7. 1.6 6 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington 20:45 UTC
8. 1.6 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 21:30 UTC
9. 1.7 15 km NE of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington 17:41 UTC
10. 1.9 4 km SW of Big Lake, Washington 03:37 UTC
11. 1.6 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 17:45 UTC
12. 2.9 12 km NNE of Hamilton, Washington 05:16 UTC
13. 1.9 6 km W of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington 12:21 UTC
14. 2.0 15 km SSW of Concrete, Washington 10:22 UTC
15. 1.6 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 17:27 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 01:06 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.