Three offshore quakes near Vancouver Island reached magnitudes of 4.9, 5.4, and 5.2, and the Seattle earthquake activity stayed far enough offshore that people on land faced no damage threat.
The first quake hit at 7:53 p.m. at magnitude 4.9, about 121 miles west-southwest of Port McNeill, British Columbia. The second followed at 9:41 p.m. at magnitude 5.4, about 144 miles west-southwest of Port McNeill. The last came at 2:13 a.m. Monday at magnitude 5.2, west of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, all at about 6.2 miles deep.
NOAA and the NWS
NOAA tracks the 5.4 quake near Vancouver Island as part of the same offshore sequence that started late Sunday and continued into Monday. NOAA and the NWS said there was no tsunami warning, advisory, watch, or threat after the trio, which kept the event limited to seismic readings rather than a shoreline emergency.
The timing also placed the Vancouver Island quakes about 2 hours and 41 minutes after a 2.6 magnitude earthquake in Klickitat County on Mount Adams. That earlier quake was separate from the offshore series, but it adds to a run of recent seismic activity in Washington state and nearby waters.
Port McNeill and the
Seismologists note that earthquakes below magnitude 5.0 rarely cause damage, and these events stayed offshore near Vancouver Island in British Columbia. With the quakes centered far out at sea and no tsunami threat issued, the practical question for readers in the region is whether any shaking reached land at all, and if so, where it was felt.
