Earthquake near White Center, WA

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

At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. In White Center, 3 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: Boulevard Park, Columbia City, Seattle, Burien, Riverton, Bryn Mawr-Skyway.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 11 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 89× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 11 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 21,000 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. 6.7 1 km ENE of Dash Point, Washington · 24 km S of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
2. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 33 km WSW of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
3. 5.8 Puget Sound area, Washington · 50 km SW of this epicentre Feb 15, 1946
4. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 44 km NE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
5. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 46 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932

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 47.5407, -122.3615. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.9 3 km SE of Gorst, Washington 19:27 UTC
2. 2.8 4 km N of Echo Lake, Washington 01:36 UTC
3. 1.6 1 km NNW of Boulevard Park, Washington 05:05 UTC
4. 1.8 9 km SSW of Seabeck, Washington 19:01 UTC
5. 2.1 0 km NNW of Esperance, Washington 18:42 UTC
6. 1.8 1 km NNW of Maple Valley, Washington 10:40 UTC
7. 1.7 2 km NNE of Enetai, Washington 02:04 UTC
8. 1.5 2 km SSE of Gorst, Washington 20:19 UTC
9. 1.6 1 km SW of Burien, Washington 07:19 UTC
10. 1.5 5 km S of Port Ludlow, Washington 18:48 UTC
11. 2.1 4 km WSW of Clinton, Washington 08:06 UTC
12. 1.5 4 km ESE of Indianola, Washington 16:12 UTC
13. 2.4 2 km N of City of Sammamish, Washington 23:56 UTC
14. 1.6 3 km SSW of Monroe, Washington 19:00 UTC
15. 1.8 2 km WSW of Federal Way, Washington 01:09 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 07:40 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.