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 dem@sanjuandem.net

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