Earthquake rattles Seattle area, followed by aftershocks

FAN Editor

Two earthquakes shook the Puget Sound region in Washington state early Friday morning, with the temblors felt into British Columbia and across the Cascade Mountains into the eastern part of the state.  There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.  

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a 4.6 magnitude earthquake rattled the Three Lakes area, about 40 miles northeast of Seattle. That was followed minutes later by a 3.5 magnitude aftershock near the city of Monroe, some 30 miles northeast of Seattle.

The initial temblor was recorded at 2:51 a.m. Friday and was followed by a series of eight aftershocks, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV reported. The USGS said it received reports of people feeling the shaking from Vancouver to near Wenatchee, Washington. 

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A tsunami was not expected, according to a tweet by the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center. Surveillance video obtained by KIRO-TV showed the moment the earthquake hit Everett, Washington.  

Numerous viewers reported feeling the earthquake. “We were sound asleep and the whole house shook and we all woke up. We are spooked and still awake,” Rob Fuhriman told the station.

KIRO meteorologist Nick Allard reports the earthquake was the largest to hit the region since the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001 that struck east of Olympia.  That quake caused some injuries and widespread damage, including to the air traffic control tower at Sea-Tac Airport.

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The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a 4.6 magnitude earthquake and a 3.5 magnitude aftershock struck near the city of Monroe, some 30 miles northeast of Seattle. USGS

Further south along the Pacific coast, a magnitude 4.9 aftershock of last week’s Southern California earthquakes was felt widely in the region on Friday morning. There have been thousands of aftershocks of the magnitude 6.4 earthquake on July 4 and the 7.1 quake that occurred the next day.

David Caruso, a USGS geophysicist, told The Seattle Times the Washington state quake was due to a thrust fault, in which one side of a fault pushed upward relative to its opposite side. Such quakes are common in the Cascade Mountain range.

Caruso said the Northwest quake had no connection to the recent earthquakes in California.

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