A minor earthquake was recorded in the San Juan Islands Tuesday morning and was felt as far away as Coupeville.
The 3.4-magnitude temblor was centered 11 miles northwest of Oak Harbor, near the southern tip of Lopez Island. It occurred at 11:06 a.m. and was 32.4 miles deep, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Coupeville resident Glenda Cantrell, a former California resident, said she immediately knew that it was an earthquake.
“It was just as if someone was rocking my mobile home,” she said. “It didn’t have any noise to it, but it lasted about 10 seconds.”
Cantrell said the low, rumbling quake didn’t move objects in her home. I-COM, the emergency dispatch center, didn’t receive any reports of the earthquake.
A 3.4-magnitude earthquake is considered to be on the higher end of “minor” earthquakes, according to the USGS. They are often felt by people but rarely cause damage. More than 100,000 of earthquakes that size occur each year.
According to the USGS map, the earthquake occurred near the Devils Mountain Fault, which runs through North Whidbey, a few miles from Deception Pass Bridge. The Strawberry Point Fault and the Utsalady Point Fault run through Oak Harbor.
