Earthquake near Granite Falls, 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 Granite Falls, 2 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.

Earthquakes near other towns within 30 km: Lochsloy, Sisco Heights, Lake Stevens, Machias, Arlington Heights, West Lake Stevens.

USGS catalogues this as explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 7.1 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 2,100,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.1 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 4.6 on 2019-07-12 — about 32,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 4 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 37 km S of this epicentre May 3, 1996
2. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 39 km SSE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
3. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 11 km SSW of this epicentre May 15, 1954
4. 5.0 6 km W of Conway, Washington · 45 km NW 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 48.0903, -121.9398. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.2 2 km SE of Mount Vernon, Washington 09:13 UTC
2. 2.9 2 km ESE of Mount Vernon, Washington 08:01 UTC
3. 1.7 3 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 20:07 UTC
4. 1.9 1 km SSE of Echo Lake, Washington 15:53 UTC
5. 2.2 2 km SSE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 06:27 UTC
6. 1.5 3 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 18:38 UTC
7. 1.5 2 km ENE of Woods Creek, Washington 23:28 UTC
8. 1.9 7 km S of Woods Creek, Washington 05:35 UTC
9. 1.8 7 km SW of Swede Heaven, Washington 01:35 UTC
10. 1.7 4 km W of Mount Vernon, Washington 23:13 UTC
11. 1.9 4 km W of Mount Vernon, Washington 07:15 UTC
12. 1.7 4 km WSW of Mount Vernon, Washington 05:14 UTC
13. 2.6 4 km W of Mount Vernon, Washington 05:13 UTC
14. 1.9 4 km W of Mount Vernon, Washington 21:52 UTC
15. 2.0 1 km ENE of Granite Falls, Washington 18:46 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.