Did you feel this quake Wednesday morning? Several Whatcom residents say they did
An 5.4-magnitude earthquake shook the United States-Canadian border region off the west coast off Vancouver Island early Wednesday morning.
The quake, which struck at 4:33 a.m. PDT on July 22, was centered just north of the 49th parallel, approximately 137 miles west of Tofino, B.C., according to information from the United States Geological Survey. According to googlemaps.com, it was less than 300 miles west of downtown Bellingham.
Sixteen people in the United States had reported feeling the quake as of 1 p.m., including five reports from Ferndale, three from Bellingham and one each from Blaine and Maple Falls. If you felt it, the USGS asks you report it on their “Did You Feel It?” webpage.
The epicenter was measured approximately 6 miles deep, according to the USGS.
No damage was reported and there were no tsunami warnings issued following the quake, according to a story posted by the Vancouver Island Free Daily.
A quake of magnitude 5.0 to 5.9 that strikes closer to where people live can move heavy furniture and cause plaster to fall. In large quakes at this range, damage is negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; and considerable in poorly built or badly designed structures, according to the USGS.
The quake off Vancouver Island struck just a minute before a smaller 2.8-magnitude earthquake hit approximately 22 miles southwest of Neah Bay and west of the Washington state coast. That quake, which was approximately 123 miles southwest of Bellingham, was measured approximately 3 miles beneath the surface, the USGS reported, and nobody has reported feeling it.
Quakes of less than magnitude 3.0 are common, and tens of thousands are reported worldwide every year, according to the USGS, which said a quake of magnitude 1.0 to 3.0 is not felt except by a very few under especially favorable conditions.
Both quakes were, of course, much smaller than the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled the Alaska Peninsula at 10:12 p.m. Monday near Kodiak Island and about 500 miles southwest of Anchorage. A tsunami warning was issued for communities within 200 miles of the epicenter, but was canceled approximately four hours later, according to CBSNews.com.
One person in Bellingham reported feeling the Alaskan earthquake, according to the USGS.
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This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 8:10 AM.
