QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.9ml

2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington

· 26 km deep · released about 610 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Island County 15 kmSan Juan County 44 kmSkagit County 63 kmSnohomish County 68 kmKitsap County 72 kmWhatcom County 84 kmJefferson County 86 kmClallam County 97 kmKing County 106 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
26 km below the surface
Felt
42 reports · strongest reported intensity III
Nearest
Island County, 15 km SSW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 44 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage. 42 people have reported feeling it to USGS.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 610 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 25,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 18,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 1.6× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.9 about 610 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 48.2867, -122.6145. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Island County, WA 15 km (9 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Island County
San Juan County, WA 44 km (27 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Juan County
Skagit County, WA 63 km (39 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Skagit County
Snohomish County, WA 68 km (42 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Snohomish County
Kitsap County, WA 72 km (45 mi) N of here earthquakes near Kitsap County
Whatcom County, WA 84 km (52 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Whatcom County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.1 6 km ENE of Bell Hill, Washington
  2. 1.6 3 km WSW of Lake Cavanaugh, Washington
  3. 2.6 2 km ENE of Mount Vernon, Washington
  4. 1.6 2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  5. 1.6 8 km S of Port Hadlock-Irondale, Washington
  6. 1.6 2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  7. 2.1 3 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  8. 1.7 3 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  9. 2.1 3 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
  10. 1.6 5 km N of Anacortes, Washington
  11. 2.1 3 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
  12. 1.6 8 km WNW of Orcas, Washington
  13. 1.7 8 km WNW of Orcas, Washington
  14. 1.8 8 km WNW of Orcas, Washington
  15. 1.9 4 km E of Port Townsend, 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 280 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.