Earthquake near Bellevue, 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 Bellevue, 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: Clyde Hill, Newport, Eastgate, Medina, Yarrow Point, Mercer Island.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 6.2 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,700,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 150× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 6.2 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 36,000 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 · 37 km SSW of this epicentre Apr 29, 1965
2. 6.1 Puget Sound region, Washington · 50 km WSW of this epicentre Nov 13, 1939
3. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 27 km NE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
4. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 30 km ENE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
5. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 45 km NNE of this epicentre May 15, 1954

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 47.6115, -122.1673. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.7 1 km ENE of Clyde Hill, Washington 19:13 UTC
2. 1.6 1 km ENE of Clyde Hill, Washington 06:34 UTC
3. 1.9 5 km NE of Hobart, Washington 05:35 UTC
4. 1.7 7 km NE of Fall City, Washington 22:43 UTC
5. 1.6 8 km ENE of Duvall, Washington 03:15 UTC
6. 1.5 1 km E of Edmonds, Washington 06:37 UTC
7. 1.6 4 km S of Monroe, Washington 19:00 UTC
8. 1.6 0 km S of Lakeland South, Washington 23:36 UTC
9. 1.6 3 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 17:44 UTC
10. 1.8 4 km NE of Woods Creek, Washington 04:06 UTC
11. 2.0 1 km SE of Fairwood, Washington 18:52 UTC
12. 1.7 4 km NW of Dash Point, Washington 03:12 UTC
13. 1.7 3 km E of Mirrormont, Washington 14:58 UTC
14. 2.1 6 km NNW of Lofall, Washington 18:43 UTC
15. 1.7 5 km NE of Hobart, Washington 12:41 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 14:14 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.