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Very strong mag. 6.8 earthquake - Cutts Island, 0.7 mi west of Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington, USA, on Wednesday, April 13, 1949 at 19:55 GMT

Very strong mag. 6.8 earthquake - Cutts Island, 0.7 mi west of Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington, USA, on Wednesday, April 13, 1949 at 19:55 GMT Very strong mag. 6.8 earthquake - Cutts Island, 0.7 mi west of Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington, USA, on Wednesday, April 13, 1949 at 19:55 GMT

Very strong magnitude 6.8 earthquake at 70 km depth

Earthquake details

Date & timeApr 13, 1949 19:55:42 UTC
Local time at epicenter
StatusConfirmed
Magnitude6.8
Depth70.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude47.167°N / 122.617°W (Washington, United States)
Antipode47.167°S / 57.383°E
Shaking intensityStrong shaking near epicenter
Felt0 reports
Primary data sourceUSGS (United States Geological Survey)
Nearest volcanoMount Rainier (74 km / 46 mi)
Nearby towns and cities1 km (1 mi) WSW of Steilacoom (Pierce County) (pop: 6,210) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
7 km (5 mi) W of Lakewood (pop: 59,800) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
9 km (6 mi) SSW of University Place (Pierce County) (pop: 32,800) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
14 km (9 mi) W of Parkland (pop: 35,800) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
16 km (10 mi) SW of Tacoma (pop: 207,900) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
26 km (16 mi) NE of Olympia (pop: 50,300) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
29 km (18 mi) SW of Federal Way (pop: 95,200) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
37 km (23 mi) SW of Kent (pop: 127,000) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
53 km (33 mi) SSW of Seattle (pop: 684,500) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
183 km (114 mi) N of Portland (Oregon) (pop: 632,300) | Show on map | Quakes nearby
Estimated seismic energy released1 x 1015 joules (278 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 2.4 x 105 tons of TNT or 14.9 atomic bombs!) | about seismic energy
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Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies

Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision.
Mag.DepthLocationSource
6.870 kmSeattle-Tacoma urban area, Washington (USA)USGS
Note: for quakes of 2012 and earlier, our database often contains only records from USGS.

User reports for this quake

User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale.
There are no user reports for this quake.
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Recorded aftershocks, latest first (0 quake)


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