Did you feel it?
A magnitude-4.5 earthquake centered near Kingston rattled the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound region at 5:25 a.m. Friday.
Felt by some on the North Olympic Peninsula, it was reported by as many as 2,511 in the Northwest and Canada, according to the U.S. Geological Survey earthquake center Web site.
There were no reports of damage or injuries in either Clallam or Jefferson counties — or elsewhere.
“Nothing was reported to us,” said Karen Roedell, a communication officer for PenCom, Clallam County’s 9-1-1 dispatch center.
Roedell said a patrol officer came in to ask about the quake, but that there were no calls from the public.
“I know people in this area felt it,” she said.
Dispatchers with Jeffcom 9-1-1, which covers Jefferson County, received two related “curiosity calls” immediately after the event, they said.
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network showed the quake was centered about three miles southwest of Kingston.
It was 36.2 miles deep.
The small temblor was felt as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia, as far west as Long Beach, and as far south as Eugene, Ore., the state Department of Natural Resources said in a written statement.
The USGS earthquake center site at http://earth quake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/ counted 41 reports from Port Townsend, which is 37 miles from the epicenter; 15 from two areas near Port Angeles, 65 and 97 miles away; four in Chimacum, 28 miles away; five in Port Hadlock, 29 miles away; six in Nordland, 33 miles away; and 157 from Victoria, 94 miles away.
Ground shaking
Bob Hamlin, program manager for Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management, said the quake was noticed in some areas more than others.
“From the reports received from several locations it is difficult to determine where there was more ground shaking,” Hamlin said.
Jefferson County Public Works employees said that they inspected all the bridges on the East Jefferson County road system, and found no damage to bridges or roadways.
The state Department of Transportation reported no bridge or road damage in East Jefferson County, Hamlin said.
Clallam County Emergency Management personnel said no damage was reported in the county.
Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger also said he felt the temblor.
A 76 Food Mart employee, however, did not feel the quake, which occurred when he was on duty at the First Street store in Port Angeles.
Bill Steele, coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network’s Seismology Lab at the University of Washington, told The Seattle Times the quake was likely caused by the cracking of the Juan de Fuca plate.
“The slab is under stress and is being pulled by gravity,” Steele said.
The region’s deep earthquakes occur in the Juan de Fuca plate, which is being bent as it subducts under the North American plate.
“You get these local forces building up and you get a pop every once in a while,” Seth Moran, of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash, told the newspaper.
Seismic Network director John Vidale said the quake was the same variety as the 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake in February 2001.
That quake, between Tacoma and Olympia, was the largest to hit the area in more than a half-century.
It disrupted operations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and damaged the Capitol in Olympia and buildings in Seattle, Port Townsend and Peninsula College in Port Angeles.
Small quakes are common in the region.
A magnitude 4.6 tremor shook the Mount Rainier area in October 2006.
Vidale said these are not the “megathrust” earthquakes that would cause catastrophic damage on the West Coast.
Megathrust quakes involve the breaking of a tectonic plate — a piece of the earth’s outer shell — and would have a magnitude of about 9, Vidale said.
The last one happened in the Northwest in 1700.
To report feeling a quake, go to http://www.pnsn.org and click on “report an earthquake.”
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Reporter Jeff Chew contributed to this report.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.olllikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
