A light earthquake of 4.7-magnitude hit off the coast of southern Oregon Sunday morning.
The temblor struck just after 4 a.m., with the epicenter about 110 miles west of Coos Bay, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
As of 9 a.m., the USGS had 10 responses in its online “Felt Report” database, which asks the public if they felt any shaking. Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 to 4.9 are considered “light.”
They’re also common off the Oregon coast. More than 3,500 seismic tremors of magnitude 2.5 or greater have been recorded there over the past 50 years.
Back in April, at least five quakes from 4.4 to 5.3 rumbled the ocean bottom west of Bandon on one day.
More have come and gone without much notice since then. Saturday saw a 3.2-magnitude quake about 90 miles west of Gold Beach.
Which means that even a series of small quakes in or near Oregon’s waters doesn’t mean a massive shaking along the 600-mile Cascadia Subduction Zone is nigh. Nor does it mean the Big One isn’t about to happen. Seismologists just don’t know.
— The Oregonian/OregonLive
