The ground shook for about 30 seconds and was felt over a 230,000-square-mile area. The earthquake affected all of Washington state, northwest Oregon and south along its coast to Cape Blanco, southwest British Columbia, north Idaho panhandle, and even northwest Montana. The quake's epicenter was located at 47 degrees 06’ 00" North Latitude 122 degrees 42’ 00" West Longitude.
Chimneys Topple Off Roofs
The most damage occurred from Seattle to Chehalis, located about 80 miles south of Seattle. Forty percent of Chehalis' business buildings and houses were damaged including 1,351 chimneys. It was estimated that 10,000 chimneys in Western Washington required repair. Eight buildings at the State Capital in Olympia were damaged. A large sandy spit jutting into Puget Sound north of Olympia disappeared. In Portland, the earthquake caused rockslides and cracks to building walls. Chimneys toppled off roofs and merchandise fell off shelves.
Damage in King County
Earthquake damage in King County communities varied significantly. The extent of an earthquake's ground shaking and damage varies depending on distance from epicenter, bedrock geology, type of ground cover, type of building and structure. A system was devised to document intensity of earthquake and amount of damage. It established 12 levels of ground shaking, from violent shaking causing total destruction (XII) to shaking barely felt by a very few (I). The system is called the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. Following is a list of the summary of damage in King County towns, grouped by level of damage and ground shaking from strongest to weakest.
Mercalli Intensity Level VIII
In King County, the quake's strongest ground shaking was in Auburn, Richmond Beach, and in parts of Seattle. Damage was considerable to well-built structures and extensive to poorly built ones. Some buildings collapsed. Chimneys, factory stacks, columns, and monuments fell. Heavy furniture overturned. People had difficulty driving.
Cool site:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=2063
Any place in Puget Sound felt that quake.
I was near Bremerton at the time.
And was safely in Seattle when St. Helens blew. We were told that it would blow ash up our way, so I went out and duck taped plastic over my VW intake vents.
But it blew over to Yakima instead.
From the hills of Seattle, you could see the top 1/3 of the mountain blow off.
As the Chinese say...may you live in interesting times........
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