Earthquake near Seattle, 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 Seattle, 37 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: Mukilteo, Picnic Point, Meadowdale, Hansville, Picnic Point-North Lynnwood, Langley.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 31 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.0 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 480,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 340,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 31× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.0 about 31 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 7,200 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 5.4 8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 44 km ESE of this epicentre May 3, 1996
2. 5.3 Eastern Olympic Peninsula, Washington · 47 km WSW of this epicentre Mar 17, 1904
3. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 48 km ESE of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
4. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 31 km ENE of this epicentre May 15, 1954
5. 5.0 6 km W of Conway, Washington · 44 km N 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 47.9353, -122.4048. 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. 1.2 5 km SSW of Port Ludlow, Washington 18:37 UTC
2. 1.7 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 21:30 UTC
3. 1.2 1 km NW of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 13:59 UTC
4. 1.7 0 km W of Lake Stickney, Washington 19:40 UTC
5. 1.1 2 km NW of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 21:43 UTC
6. 0.5 2 km S of Union Hill-Novelty Hill, Washington 07:07 UTC
7. 1.6 3 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington 08:41 UTC
8. 1.6 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington 02:03 UTC
9. 1.5 5 km SSW of Monroe, Washington 22:00 UTC
10. 1.5 2 km E of Granite Falls, Washington 19:54 UTC
11. 1.6 8 km S of Port Hadlock-Irondale, Washington 21:53 UTC
12. 1.5 2 km WNW of Ames Lake, Washington 12:58 UTC
13. 1.7 2 km NNW of Enetai, Washington 23:26 UTC
14. 1.6 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington 17:07 UTC
15. 1.6 5 km SSE of Quilcene, Washington 21:56 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 06:11 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.