Earthquakes In Washington & Seattle Since 1970

I was messing around on Google Earth with USGS checking out earthquakes since 1970.

According to USGS, it says there have been about 13 earthquakes, a 6.8 in 2001 then about 12 earthquakes from 2010-2011 ranging from 1.2 - 4.3.

Is this correct, if it is this means that there was a space of 31 years before an earthquake then a 9 year gap and all of a sudden 12 earthquakes with a space of 2 years, can anybody living in Washington confirm this, seems a bit strange to me.

reply to post by jonskie

There were definitely sporadic earthquakes prior to the 6.8 - an event I will never forget...

I recall feeling my first earthquake in that area of the country in the late nineties (must have been greater than 5.0), and there were many others of smaller magnitude in the news in the several decades prior to that. I can't speak to why the data you reference seemed to cutoff abruptly, but I can imagine any number of reasons why it might be the case.

I check the WA USGS about every 2 or 3 days and there seems to always be some earthquakes over 1.0 within the last week. I just checked and right now it shows 2 at 2.0 or greater just this last week.
earthquake.usgs.gov...

If it really shows what you came up with, must just be a data gap.

I was in 5th grade during the 2001 Quake a.k.a The Nisqually Quake. At the time I lived about 40 miles from the epicenter and even though it was a relatively deep quake we all still felt substantial shaking for several seconds. Here are a couple video's:

Microsoft Campus During 2001 Nisqually Earthquake Redmond, Washington


The next video shows some of the damage caused by the 2001 Nisqually Quake and also goes into greater detail about the quake and the general seismic activity of the Pacific Northwest


The final video is a simulation created after the 2001 quake showing the dangers of a large quake to the city of Seattle. This video personally sent chills down my spine, when it was aired on the news I lived in an apartment right on the other side of the viaduct pictured in the video.


All in all I was born in Western Washington in 1990 and have lived in the area my entire life. I wouldn't say that we have A LOT of quakes but definitely enough to notice. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network has a very informative FAQ Page answering many questions about seismic activity in the Pacific Northwest.

Thanks for the post!

This is an old article but interesting read.
Large prehistoric earthquake ripped Seattle

Edit. It's so old it mentions the Kingdome