QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

2 km ESE of Mount Vernon, Washington

· 9.8 km deep · released about 650 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Skagit County 37 kmIsland County 39 kmSnohomish County 57 kmWhatcom County 59 kmSan Juan County 60 kmKitsap County 90 kmKing County 109 kmJefferson County 113 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 2.9 (ml)
Depth
9.8 km below the surface
Felt
164 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Skagit County, 37 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 320 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 164 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 650 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.9 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 23,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 16,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.5× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 650 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.

Where

Epicentre 48.4143, -122.3065. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Skagit County, WA 37 km (23 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Skagit County
Island County, WA 39 km (24 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Island County
Snohomish County, WA 57 km (35 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Snohomish County
Whatcom County, WA 59 km (37 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Whatcom County
San Juan County, WA 60 km (37 mi) E of here earthquakes near San Juan County
Kitsap County, WA 90 km (56 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Kitsap County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 5 km E of Acme, Washington
  2. 1.8 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  3. 1.9 3 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  4. 2.3 3 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  5. 2.0 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  6. 2.3 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  7. 3.8 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  8. 2.4 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  9. 1.7 2 km ENE of Granite Falls, Washington
  10. 1.5 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  11. 2.0 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  12. 1.6 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  13. 2.4 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  14. 2.9 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  15. 2.1 5 km N of Anacortes, Washington

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.5 on 2025-03-03 — it released about 260 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.