I can’t ever remember seeing three earthquakes under Portland in less than ninety minutes. Â
But it happened Thursday night.
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It’s doubtful these are foreshadowing a big quake to come – but the quakes are for now, somewhat of a mystery.
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Surprise Micro-quakes Under SE PortlandÂ
- 2.1 magnitude – 8:49pm – Ladd’s Circle area of SE Portland
- 1.7magnitude – 9:26pm – Near Lone Fir Cemetery and not far from Central Catholic High School
- 1.2magnitude – 9:56pm – Near Lone Fir Cemetery and not far from Central Catholic High School
- Friday morning quake: 1.9 magnitude – 4:07am – same area as the other three quakes
Quake Happened During Timber’s Home Opener
That’s right. All of these happened while 18,000 fans cheered the Portland Timbers onto victory in the pouring rain. Some Timber fans even tweeted about it–wondering–could all the commotion (and motion) at Jeld-Wen Field be a trigger for an earthquake. I thought it was an interesting idea–until I saw there were three quakes in the same area.
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Southeast Portland Has Seen This Before Â
These quakes happened in an area that has had multiple small quakes in the past. I know there were several in 2006 but can’t remember if there were others. What I do remember is that geologists were puzzled last time about why this area was seeing multiple quakes.
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Quakes are often mysterious around Portland and Vancouver. Many of our faults are hidden and unknown. They’re buried under sediment from ancient floods that hit our area. We know much, much less about faults here than scientists do in California.
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If you want to check for earthquakes in the northwest, bookmark this page: http://www.pnsn.org/recenteqs/latest.htm
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And don’t forget to read my interview with a local geologist about the massive subduction zone quake we’ll someday see in the Pacific Northwest.
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In the meantime, let’s hope these quakes are not caused by the rain. We’d be in big trouble if that were true!
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