LILLIWAUP — A moderate earthquake that rattled East Jefferson County and points east provided a shocking wake-up call for residents near its Hood Canal epicenter.
The magnitude-4.0 quake — which reportedly was felt as far away as Seattle, Everett and Olympia but apparently not Clallam County — “really thumped” at its epicenter near the Jefferson-Mason county line.
“It was a big kick. It literally lifted us off the mattress,” said Mike Schultz, owner of Mike’s Beach Resort at 38470 U.S. Highway 101 between Lilliwaup and Brinnon.
The resort is only 0.2 mile from the epicenter that was pinpointed by University of Washington seismologists as 10.2 miles below the western Hood Canal shoreline surface about 45 miles south of Port Townsend.
The quake struck at 3:06 a.m.
Once the initial shock was over, there was no more earth movement, Schultz said.
The University of Washington’s Pacific Northwest Seismic Network as of 4 p.m. reported no apparent aftershocks from the site of the early morning quake.
At daybreak, Schultz checked his home and the resort for fallen items, broken pipes and other possible damage from the temblor but found nothing, he said.
Schultz said he didn’t know if his resort guests felt the quake.
“None of them have woken yet,” he said by phone at about 10:30 a.m.
Schultz said the area has had a sizable earthquake about every 10 years since he opened the resort 63 years ago.
But Wednesday’s was different.
“It was just one big bounce,” Schultz said.
Previous quakes have kept rolling for a while after the initial shock, he said.
The shaking was felt in Kitsap County and on the eastern side of Puget Sound, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s “Did You Feel It” quake-tracking feature at earthquake.usgs.gov.
The feature rates the intensity of shaking according to what people felt during the quake, and how much damage is done.
On a 1-to-10 scale with 10 representing extreme shaking, residents in the Lilliwaup are reported the most severe shaking, Intensity 4, with no damage.
By comparison, a 5.2 earthquake in Napa, Calif., on Sept. 3, was rated Intensity 7, with very strong shaking and moderate damage.
Intensity 3 (weak) shaking was reported from Port Townsend to Elma, and as far east as Monroe.
Intensity 2 (weak) shaking reports came from Tenino, and as far east as Duvall and north to Stanwood.
There were no reports of residents feeling the earthquake in Clallam County or west of the Olympic Mountains.
John Vidale, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, said Wednesday’s was the biggest quake to shake the Puget Sound region this year.
But a magnitude-4.0 earthquake does little damage, he said.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
