Earthquake Swarm near San Juan Island

This is shared with you from The Town of Friday Harbor/San Juan County Department of Emergency Management…

A swarm of eight small earthquakes happened near San Juan Island on January 29th & 30th. All of the quakes were located in San Juan Channel, roughly between Jones Island and Mineral Point on San Juan Island.

The first of two larger quakes was a magnitude 2.7 that occurred at 6:27pm on Sunday night. The second was a magnitude 3.0 that happened at 3:03 am Monday morning. Both quakes were somewhere between 12-14 km deep.

As of 9:00 am Monday morning, 87 people had reported feeling the second quake, and 27 reported feeling the first one.

While there’s no known fault in the location of the quakes, the San Juans are in an active seismic zone, and there’s a lot seismologists are still learning about faults across Western Washington.

There’s no reason to think that these quakes are a cause for alarm, but they’re a great reminder to all islanders that being prepared for a major quake is just a common sense part of living in the Pacific NW and calling the islands home.

For more info about quakes in the islands, visit the DEM website, and for info on how to prepare for a quake or other disaster, go here.

As always, feel free to contact the Department of Emergency Management if you have questions or need help of any kind. (360) 370-7612 or [email protected]

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