Earthquake near Morton, 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 61 km (38 mi) from the epicentre. In Morton, 20 km away, the estimate is intensity III (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: Morton 20 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.5 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 68,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 3,000× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,100× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.5 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.2× 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

No earthquake of M4 or more has been recorded within 50 km since our catalogue begins in 2016.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 16 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 5.7 38 km NNE of Amboy, Washington · 22 km SSE of this epicentre May 18, 1980
2. 5.2 37 km NNE of Amboy, Washington · 22 km SSE of this epicentre Apr 14, 1980
3. 5.2 23 km S of Morton, Washington · 8 km ESE of this epicentre Feb 14, 1981
4. 5.1 28 km ENE of Amboy, Washington · 43 km SSE of this epicentre Sep 17, 1961
5. 5.1 Washington · 21 km SE of this epicentre Apr 3, 1980

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 46.3797, -122.3262. 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. 1.7 12 km SSW of Alder, Washington 03:30 UTC
2. 1.6 6 km ESE of Mossyrock, Washington 04:34 UTC
3. 1.7 13 km N of Onalaska, Washington 00:45 UTC
4. 2.3 38 km SSE of Morton, Washington 02:37 UTC
5. 1.7 18 km E of West Side Highway, Washington 20:01 UTC
6. 1.6 19 km NE of Kalama, Washington 05:25 UTC
7. 1.6 21 km ENE of Kalama, Washington 19:59 UTC
8. 1.5 27 km NNW of Amboy, Washington 20:00 UTC
9. 2.8 3 km NE of Mineral, Washington 21:17 UTC
10. 1.9 6 km NE of Mossyrock, Washington 01:37 UTC
11. 1.6 6 km ESE of Mossyrock, Washington 10:58 UTC
12. 1.8 17 km WSW of Alder, Washington 13:42 UTC
13. 1.6 31 km N of Amboy, Washington 19:08 UTC
14. 1.7 8 km S of Mineral, Washington 01:53 UTC
15. 1.6 12 km NNE of Amboy, Washington 10:08 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 21:45 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.