The May 2, 1996 earthquake
M5.4near Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake 2.4 miles deep, centred in King County. The 12th strongest in Washington’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 6.7 on April 29, 1965. 26 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
Watch the sequence unfoldMagnitude 5.4 · May 2, 1996
How the ground moved
Every recorded earthquake in the sequence, in order, through the month after.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.4
- duration magnitude (md)
- Depth
- 2.4 mi
- 3.8 km below the surface
- Local time
- Thursday, May 2, 1996
- 21:04 PDT; 04:04 UTC on May 3, 1996
- In Washington’s record
- 12th
- strongest of 5,002 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event uw10389973 (“8 km NNE of Lake Marcel-Stillwater, Washington”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.
Aftershocks
Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.
26
Aftershocks in 30 days
3.5
Largest aftershock, May 3, 1996
9
On the first day
0
In the 7 days before
- The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
Counties and cities within 50 miles
Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.
Counties
- King CountyWA · inside
- Snohomish CountyWA · 21.9 mi
- Island CountyWA · 25.3 mi
- Kitsap CountyWA · 27.7 mi
- Kittitas CountyWA · 31.4 mi
- Chelan CountyWA · 33.8 mi
- Jefferson CountyWA · 35.2 mi
- Pierce CountyWA · 37.0 mi
- Skagit CountyWA · 43.6 mi
- Mason CountyWA · 46.2 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
205 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first
- April 29, 1965M6.7
- November 12, 1939M6.1
- July 17, 1932M5.2
- May 15, 1954M5.0
- January 25, 1957M5.0
- January 28, 1995M5.0
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.