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 11 km (7 mi) from the epicentre. In Seattle, 31 km away, the estimate is intensity I (not felt). 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 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.1 on 2017-02-23 — about 5,100 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 · 44 km S of this epicentre Feb 28, 2001
2. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 35 km SE of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
3. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 16 km S of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
4. 5.8 Puget Sound area, Washington · 32 km SSW of this epicentre Feb 15, 1946
5. 5.3 Eastern Olympic Peninsula, Washington · 34 km NW 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 47.5477, -122.7425. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.7 0 km NNE of Parkland, Washington 00:09 UTC
2. 1.7 7 km WSW of Quilcene, Washington 22:24 UTC
3. 1.6 1 km SW of Burien, Washington 07:32 UTC
4. 1.8 4 km SSW of Port Ludlow, Washington 21:10 UTC
5. 2.3 3 km WNW of Navy Yard City, Washington 15:38 UTC
6. 1.7 2 km N of White Center, Washington 07:25 UTC
7. 1.6 7 km ESE of Quilcene, Washington 19:47 UTC
8. 1.8 5 km NE of Kingston, Washington 22:38 UTC
9. 1.9 4 km WNW of Gorst, Washington 20:23 UTC
10. 1.9 2 km E of Belfair, Washington 15:41 UTC
11. 1.7 8 km SSW of Seabeck, Washington 09:49 UTC
12. 1.8 3 km WNW of Gorst, Washington 21:05 UTC
13. 2.7 1 km ENE of Enetai, Washington 17:49 UTC
14. 1.9 1 km E of Enetai, Washington 13:41 UTC
15. 1.6 4 km SW of Port Ludlow, Washington 17:32 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 12:04 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.