No, you’re not imagining things — Whatcom did have a small quake Saturday evening
If you live in northern Whatcom County and yelled at the kids for shaking the whole house with their roughhousing as you prepared dinner Saturday evening, you may need to offer an apology.
The United States Geological Survey reported there was an earthquake just south of the U.S.-Canadian border — not a large one, but the ground actually did rumble.
According to the USGS page on the quake, we had a 2.3 magnitude at 5:52 p.m. Saturday. The epicenter was approximately 18,000 feet beneath the southern end of Judson Lake — near the Holmquist Hazelnut Orchards and approximately two miles west of Sumas.
According to the Michigan Tech website, earthquakes of 2.5 magnitude or less can be detected by a seismograph but are usually not felt, which probably explains why, as of Monday, nobody had reported feeling it to the USGS. The Michigan Tech site reported there are approximately 900,000 earthquakes 2.5 of smaller per year, though the USGS showed Saturday’s was the only one under Whatcom County in the past three weeks.
This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 10:49 AM.
