Magnitude 2.7 Earthquake Hits West of Vancouver, Wash.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Annie Ellison, GoLocalPDX reporter

A magnitude 2.7 earthquake struck six km (3.7 miles) west of Vancouver, Wash. Monday morning.

The temblor hit north of Portland at 8:31 a.m., the US Geological Survey reports.

Based on Richter scale guidelines, a quake of this magnitude might be felt slightly by some, but cause no damage to buildings. Eleven people responded to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network's 'Did you feel it' service, from varying locations, including Portland, Columbia City, and Damascus in Oregon, and Vancouver and Ridgefield in Washington.

The quake went 19 km (11.7 miles) deep, indicating it was due to the activity of tectonic plates, rather than volcanic activity, Liz Westby of the Cacades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver said.

Earlier this month, the Cascadia fault zone, expected to cause the next big earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, had gone silent.

Experts believed the silence may have been an indicator of an impending, massive earthquake in the region, the Daily Mail reported.

The 1,000 km Cascadia fault stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California and lies underwater between 40 and 80 miles offshore of the Pacific Northwest coastline.