4.2 magnitude earthquake hits near Port Orchard, felt from Issaquah to Olympia
Sep 29, 2026, 2:28 PM | Updated: 3:08 pm
A photo of the United States Geological Survey Community Internet Intensity Map. (Photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey)
(Photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey)
A 4.2 magnitude earthquake hit Wauna, a town near Port Orchard, Tuesday afternoon.
Cities where the most residents could feel the earthquake include Seattle, Bremerton, Tacoma, Olympia, and Issaquah, among several others with less exposure.
The earthquake struck around 2:05 p.m., roughly 10 miles north-northeast of Port Orchard, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
KIRO Newsradio spoke with Taylor Van Cise, Communications Manager for Air Quality at the Washington State Department of Ecology, who could feel the quake in Lacey.
“I felt it as though I thought somebody bumped into my chair, and then someone got mad in the coffee room behind me,” Van Cise said. “I popped my head out of my office door and saw about 10 other people doing the same thing. All these heads started popping up, looking around. ‘Did we all feel that?’ Sure enough, we did.
“A lot of us here probably remember what happened in 2001 with the Nisqually earthquake,” Van Cise added. “It wasn’t that bad, but it certainly was noticeable and interrupted the workday.”
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Officials measured the earthquake at a depth of roughly 16.7 miles.
More than 4,300 people reported that they had felt the earthquake, with a majority of reports labeling the intensity as “weak” or “light.”
USGS determined the earthquake to have a 99% chance of being a “low likelihood of casualties and damage.”
The agency also estimated that roughly 5.2 million people lived in areas that experienced “weak” shaking.
Seattle felt a majority of the quake, with more than 3.4 million people estimated to be exposed to the earthquake.
USGS estimated a 37% chance of an aftershock of magnitude 3 or higher within the next week, and an 8% chance of magnitude 4 or higher.
Stay up to date on earthquakes around the region with the MyNorthwest Earthquake Tracker.
Sound Transit disruptions
In response to the earthquake, Sound Transit’s 1 Line Trains are sharing one track at Angle Lake Station until further notice due to the seismic activity.
All trains will board on the platform for Federal Way Downtown.
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