Earthquake near Fall City, 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 7 km (4 mi) from the epicentre. In Fall City, 8 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: Carnation, Snoqualmie, Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Ames Lake, North Bend, Klahanie.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 43 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 350,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 250,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 22× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 43 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 5,200 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 · 17 km NNW of this epicentre May 3, 1996
2. 5.2 9 km NE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington · 15 km N of this epicentre Jul 18, 1932
3. 5.0 4 km ENE of Machias, Washington · 45 km NNW of this epicentre May 15, 1954
4. 5.0 3 km WSW of Des Moines, Washington · 49 km WSW of this epicentre Jan 29, 1995

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 47.6140, -121.8118. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 1.2 11 km E of Carnation, Washington 22:19 UTC
2. 1.8 1 km SE of Lynnwood, Washington 18:44 UTC
3. 1.0 7 km SW of Snoqualmie, Washington 03:04 UTC
4. 1.2 1 km NNW of Esperance, Washington 09:37 UTC
5. 1.3 7 km NE of Fall City, Washington 22:53 UTC
6. 0.8 0 km ESE of Snoqualmie, Washington 06:18 UTC
7. 0.8 4 km SW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 11:30 UTC
8. 1.2 14 km E of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington 20:55 UTC
9. 1.3 6 km WSW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 14:43 UTC
10. 1.1 7 km WSW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 02:06 UTC
11. 2.6 5 km SW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 01:09 UTC
12. 1.4 6 km SW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 22:48 UTC
13. 1.8 6 km WSW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 22:48 UTC
14. 1.0 6 km WSW of Wilderness Rim, Washington 09:40 UTC
15. 1.3 13 km SE of Verlot, Washington 09:39 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 11:01 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.