Series Of Earthquakes Strike Oregon, 5.9 Magnitude

A series of earthquakes struck Oregon overnight on Sunday and on Monday, with the largest, a 5.9 magnitude, striking just after 1pm.

The earthquakes were not powerful enough to trigger a tsunami, scientists confirmed.

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King5.com reports:

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck at 12:52 a.m. and a 5.5 hit at 4:46 a.m. Monday morning. A third smaller quake measuring magnitude 4.4 hit at 7:46 a.m.

Paul Caruso with the U.S. Geological Survey says the quakes hit a fault west of the Oregon and Washington coast. They were about 330 miles west of Salem and 288 miles from Coos Bay Oregon.

Caruso says they were 6 miles deep, which is relatively shallow. He says the deeper the quake, the less likely people will feel it. The magnitude 7.8 quake that recently struck Japan did little damage because it was 420 miles deep.

Caruso says the quakes were not big enough to trigger tsunamis. He says it usually takes a magnitude 7 for that to happen.