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

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

Very strong magnitude 6.8 earthquake at 70 km depth

Date & time: 13 Apr 1949 19:55:42 UTC
Magnitude: 6.8
Depth: 70.0 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 47.167°N / 122.617°W (Washington, United States)
Nearest volcano: Mount Rainier (74 km / 46 mi)
Nearby towns and cities:
1 km (1 mi) WSW of Steilacoom (Pierce County) (pop: 6,210) --> See nearby quakes!
7 km (5 mi) W of Lakewood (pop: 59,800) --> See nearby quakes!
9 km (6 mi) SSW of University Place (Pierce County) (pop: 32,800) --> See nearby quakes!
14 km (9 mi) W of Parkland (pop: 35,800) --> See nearby quakes!
16 km (10 mi) SW of Tacoma (pop: 207,900) --> See nearby quakes!
21 km (13 mi) NE of Lacey (pop: 46,400) --> See nearby quakes!
26 km (16 mi) NE of Olympia (pop: 50,300) --> See nearby quakes!
29 km (18 mi) SW of Federal Way (pop: 95,200) --> See nearby quakes!
37 km (23 mi) SW of Kent (pop: 127,000) --> See nearby quakes!
53 km (33 mi) SSW of Seattle (pop: 684,500) --> See nearby quakes!
Primary data source: USGS (United States Geological Survey)
Estimated released energy: 1 x 1015 joules (278 gigawatt hours, equivalent to 2.4 x 105 tons of TNT or 14.9 atomic bombs!) More info
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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

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Aftershocks

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