UPDATE from Brendan Cowan
Director, San Juan County Emergency Mgmt: Info on recent quake felt throughout the San Juan Islands is online.
We appreciate islanders going to this link above to report if they felt the quake, and how it felt. That sort of information is very useful to seismologists and emergency management staff.
No danger of tsunami from this quake according to Tsunami Warning Center:https://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/
There are no reports of damage in the San Juans at this time, but minor damage would not be out of the question for a quake of this proximity and magnitude.
This is the largest quake felt in the San Juans in a number of years. Any updated information will be posted to our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/sanjuandem
— by Lin McNulty —
ORIGINAL STORY: Tuesday night, December 29 11:39 p.m. my desk chair rumbles. “Earthquake,” I think and immediately brought up the USGS Earthquake website, not totally certain I will find anything. Yep. Nothing.
A few minutes later, however, a red dot appears on the map right next door to San Juan Island. USGS registers a 4.9 earthquake 19km (12 miles) NNE of Victoria, Canada. The quake was 58.7km deep.
As of midnight, there were no reports from the local media in Vancouver regarding damage or injuries, although neither is normally expected during a quake of this magnitude.
Did you feel it? Tell us your earthquake story below in the comments.
Sitting on the side of my bed playing solitaire on my phone and thought I heard the wind coming up. As soon as I thought that my bed started shaking and I just sat there letting the fact that it was an earthquake register. I had heard earlier today that there were I believe three or four in California, but I think they were smaller than this one. It didn’t seem to be a jarring one like the last one I recall here on Orcas, but a rolling one. Hoping for no aftershocks since earthquakes are my very least favorite thing. 7.something in Seattle when I was seven has made me fear quakes ever since. Experienced others in Seattle over the years, but the only one I remember here seems like it was maybe 12 or 15 years ago and felt like a truck ran into the side of the building at OPALCO.
Yes! I was in my basement, and everything shifted for. moment. I remember thnking, if I was upstairs, that could have been just a really big gust of wind. But in the basement … not so much. No damage anywhere that I could see, so I kinda forgot about it.
Yes it woke me up and I heard glasses rattling down stairs I was pretty sure it was an earthquake as I had felt the same thing in Illinois in the past. Nobody else in my house felt it or reacted including the dog.
It would be helpful if those who comment would tell us what part of the Island they are on! Thanks! This Quake was to the north and west of Orcas. Thanks! Spirit Eagle
On Lookout Mountain (near West Beach), we felt the floor roll under us and some sound – not sure if it was the quake itself or stuff moving in the basement. Bodily vibration felt like the earthquakes of my childhood in NorCal, but less intense – more rolling than the boom! I remember.
I’m on the North Shore, near Terrell Beach Rd.
On Mount Woolard, it felt like someone slammed a VERY BIG door. Kind of odd, compared to SoCal quakes.
In Victorian Valley, we were on the third floor just getting ready to shut things down for the night. It was like a huge wind gust hit the house, a kind of [bam!] and then it was over. I just didn’t get to sleep too fast last night after that!
I am out by the gold course, I felt it on the top floor, family on floor below did not. I thought it was a short jolt of an earthquake or a really large tree fell!
I’ve experienced ‘boom’ and other noises during other earthquakes. Last night’s earthquake woke me up, and our whole house shook solidly for 5-6 seconds, and a pocket door rattled between its walls. Location north shore/north beach.
I went on Twitter and discovered instantaneous comments from Vancouver, and so discerned it had occurred in that region.
We are so close!
We’re in Eastsound. The whole building shook. At first I thought my neighbor upstairs had a big bookcase fall over. The jolt shook our place with a loud bang! The noise sounded as if it was from outside. Ironically, a neighbor in the next building didn’t hear or feel a thing! A good reminder to get our EQ Bags stocked in case we have to evacuate our individual areas of the Island in a hurry.
This was a reminder that crowding 55% of Islanders into Eastsound is Not a good idea. The Whidby Fault (south of us) which has been discovered to be a longer Fault line than originally thought is likely to cause a Tsunami in Eastsound. It would likely also hit beach front on either side of the Sound.
Spirit Eagle
Follow-up to my comment at 12:41 this morning – I am located in Eastsound directly across the road from the Orcas Center. My daughter and son-in-law also felt it in the Doe Bay area.
At Obstruction Pass: Just one jolt (no noise) like an animal jumping on the bed. However, the cat was already at the end of the bed, ears up, eyes wide.
After a couple of minutes she got off the bed and began searching every square inch of the (very small but tall) house, asking to look out of both doors and every window. It was a long time before either of us went back to sleep. This quake wasn’t like others I’ve experienced with loud noises, a lot of rolling and swaying and aftershocks.
One huge jolt woke me ( N. Beach, Orcas), but my cat was undisturbed. Lasted 3-5 seconds. Thought a deer hit the side of the house!
On Eagle Ridge,up 2 miles from Olga Road. Felt intense jolt — woke us up and then few moments of shaking, could hear things on dressers shaking. No aftershocks felt.
Yes, it woke us up big time. Our bed is built into the two tallest posts in the house that run up to the highest roof. There was a loud boom-like sound and about 5 seconds of shaking. Bonnie felt it as tho it was side to side, but I felt it as tho it was up and down. This was similar in feeling and sound to another we had years ago.
I had just gone to bed at 11:30 and was just “letting go” and relaxing into the idea of sleep… I live in a motor home north and west of Eastsound village… Suddenly, I felt this big thud and my first thought (being an earthquake virgin) was that a big animal had somehow, impossibly, gotten into my rig, had jumped up on my bed and was running across it… like a HUGE over-sized MEGA-RODENT… (lol) and then it sort of rippled through the whole 29’of the rig, rocked it kind of abruptly and then the rocking continued for at least 30 seconds. I was shocked into the awareness that it was an earthquake, and my first impulse was to use my iPhone and log onto Facebook. What a relief to have data, access and SO MUCH COMPANY! The first thing I read was Mia’s post, “Was there just an earthquake?” and was the second one to comment with a resounding YES! It made me so grateful to be part of a cyber-network such as FB and grateful that so many others from Port Townsend to Bellingham were all posting about their experiences. The odd thing is that I see it posted as 4.3, 4.8 and 4.9 depending on what site you go to. I usually stick to the USGS page, which said 4.9. So now I am no longer an earthquake virgin. I have been royally shaken. ;)
My mother lives on the second floor of the B building of the Driftwood Condos in Eastsound. She said that her chair rattled, some pictures fell off the shelf, and the shower door slid open. We live at 1700 feet on the north side of Mt. Constitution and I felt nothing, but my husband in the loft felt a little shake.
In Deer Harbor, slight quake. BaDumpBaDump
Great reporting! The other thing could be the time we felt it. I believe it was about 11:45 p.m.
I’m on the hill above West Sound and was awakened. Reflecting on it later, I wondered why i woke up so early after going to bed. That’s why. I also had the “cat response”, that a cat was moving the bed by scratching or curling up.
Doe Bay area – – –
An easy one. It didn’t spill my Double Man . . . .
We live on the north shore. Had literally just laid down for sleep. Turned on the white noise machine and was dozing off. Did not feel anything but *heard* Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom. Said to my husband, “What was that???” He said, “What did you hear?” I repeated the four booms and turned off the sound machine to listen in silence. Nothing further. Exciting.
It was 11:40pm on Dec. 30th and we were up talking and visiting with a friend. I heard a loud distant rumble that sounds like the fighter jets followed by a feeling and sound as if a truck hit our house and everything shook. We are near the ferry landing side of the island.
We are just South of Pt Lawrence in Doe Bay (Sea Acres) and I felt like someone kicked the bed. Then the lampshades started to rattle and I knew it was an earthquake (ex-California resident). Very small but they are still scary! Merry (Paul slept through it, of course)
On Nordstrom Lane (Crow Valley) I was brushing my teeth when a tremendous whomp happened with crunching noises, like the bathroom would drop off of the original very old house, and that was it. No rolling or any further motion. The Nisqually quake left various cracks, but somehow the house remains despite constant attention from post-hole beetles, carpenter ants and dentally active rats, of which 4 have been eliminated via traps recently. (The absence of chewing sounds in the night is quite noticeable.) Amazing it’s still standing. I’ve learned that the house itself is a pretty good seismologer, especially if I’m sitting on the floor.
Leif: Not Bogus at all! Do an Internet search. There is plenty Of info about EQ Faults around here especially the Whidbey Fault which extends to the Cascades. One can’t live in EQ country on an Island and assume that a Tsunami can’t happen here. Because the Whidbey Fault is relatively close to us a Tsunami is likely from it.
Spirit Eagle