Earthquake near Seattle, WA

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 13 km (8 mi) from the epicentre. In Seattle, 32 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: Bremerton 9 km, intensity II · Enetai 12 km, intensity II. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 13 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 1,200,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 840,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 75× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 13 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 3,200 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 · 42 km S of this epicentre Feb 28, 2001
2. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 34 km SE of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
3. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 14 km S of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
4. 5.8 Puget Sound area, Washington · 30 km SSW of this epicentre Feb 15, 1946
5. 5.3 Eastern Olympic Peninsula, Washington · 36 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 47.5308, -122.7382. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.7 2 km ESE of Enetai, Washington 13:20 UTC
2. 1.7 4 km SE of Quilcene, Washington 00:45 UTC
3. 1.5 4 km SW of Port Ludlow, Washington 19:08 UTC
4. 1.6 4 km ESE of Quilcene, Washington 15:19 UTC
5. 1.9 1 km NNW of Des Moines, Washington 13:28 UTC
6. 2.0 Puget Sound region, Washington 11:55 UTC
7. 2.4 0 km NW of Des Moines, Washington 10:37 UTC
8. 1.7 2 km SSW of Burien, Washington 10:36 UTC
9. 2.0 3 km WNW of Gorst, Washington 23:18 UTC
10. 1.7 5 km SSE of Quilcene, Washington 16:50 UTC
11. 1.6 0 km SW of Esperance, Washington 20:09 UTC
12. 1.5 6 km WSW of Port Ludlow, Washington 00:10 UTC
13. 1.5 Puget Sound region, Washington 06:44 UTC
14. 1.7 Puget Sound region, Washington 02:53 UTC
15. 2.2 7 km WSW of Seattle, Washington 06:13 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 09:37 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.