Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

This was updated at 12:25 p.m.

A 4.3 magnitude earthquake this morning near Mount St. Helens was felt in Morton, Mossyrock and Randle, but no damage has been reported.

Sgt. Ross McDowell, of Lewis County Emergency Management, said the 10:35 a.m. quake was shallow, only about three miles deep.

The earthquake was six miles northwest of the volcano and 19 miles south of Morton, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

McDowell said its in the same area where two weeks ago more than a dozen small earthquakes were felt.

This morning’s shaking was followed about two minutes later by a 2.5 micro-quake. And one more of 2.3 magnitude at 11:35 a.m.

McDowell said his office received about a dozen calls from people who said they felt it.

By contrast, the quake on Nov. 16 near Mossyrock was about nine miles below the surface and initially recorded at 3.5 and upgraded to 4.2. It made the list of notable Pacific Northwest earthquakes since 1993, compiled by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

McDowell said people should remember we live in an earthquake zone and they should be prepared, because there is little or no notification for earthquakes.

Washington state typically experiences over 1,000 earthquakes each month, according to Lewis County Emergency Management. Of these, approximately two dozen a year are large enough to be felt.

Usually the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network offers preliminary data and adjustments are made during the following 48 hours or so as they gather information.

The public can follow the earthquake data at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network’s website.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 11:43 am and is filed under Top story of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.