AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — A magnitude 2.7 earthquake struck 4 km northwest of Fairchild Air Force Base Tuesday morning.
“They’re fairly small earthquakes, but they’re… meaningful to geologists, because it tells us that there are fault lines below the ground surface. And, you know, especially in our area, like how we get water into our aquifers is a lot of times where the Earth has been cracked,” Dr. Chad Pritchard, a geotechnical geologist and professor at Eastern Washington University, said.
The Latah Fault runs north through south of Spokane.
“A couple of years ago, there was a 5.5 in [the] Sandpoint area on the Lewis and Clark fault zone. And I don’t think it’s impossible for something like that to happen here. But, more likely, I mean, in our seismic history, we’re generally less than 4.0,” Pritchard said.
Deborah Whittwer heard and felt the earthquake from her home in Spokane’s Emerson Garfield neighborhood.
“I was working on chores and the dogs were going crazy barking. And I walked from my bedroom into the kitchen and there was a boom. A boom!” Whittwer said.
In Airway Heights, Tricia Madison and her husband heard and felt the earthquake. She told NonStop Local that her home even shook a little bit.
Madison added that it’s important for families in Eastern Washington to educate their children about the possibility of earthquakes in the region.
“I guess, start that conversation with our kids… about what… their training is at school, if they’ve gone through any type of earthquake training. I know they’re relatively minor in our area… typically,” Madison said.
Dr. Pritchard also told NonStop Local that while an earthquake is always fairly unnerving, it is a good tool for seismologists to use to learn more about the region.
