EARTHQUAKEM3.0

M3.0 earthquake near Columbia City, Oregon

Map: the earthquake near Columbia City, Oregon, with plate boundaries

A magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck 2 mi (3 km) west of Columbia City, Oregon on Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 14:25 UTC, at a depth of 15 mi (24 km), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow quakes like this one shake the surface hardest. The nearest city of a million or more people is Portland, Oregon, about 27 mi (43 km) away.

113 people reported feeling it to USGS “Did You Feel It?”.

MagnitudeM3.0
Depth15 mi (24 km)
Time (UTC)Oct 22 14:25
Location45.89°N 122.86°W
Nearest townColumbia City · 3 km
Energy0 tons TNT
Aftershocks M2.5+0
Tsunami flagNo
Felt reports113
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Why here?

This earthquake struck about 131 mi (211 km) from the boundary between the North American and Juan de Fuca plates. Most earthquakes happen along plate boundaries like this one, where the pieces of Earth’s outer shell collide, pull apart or grind past each other. Stress builds up over years until the rock suddenly slips.

The red lines on the map are plate boundaries.

Shaking and impact

The strongest shaking USGS estimates was intensity 2 on the Modified Mercalli scale: weak.

How strong was it?

Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step releases about 32 times more energy. This magnitude 3.0 released roughly the energy of 0 tons of TNT. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5 in Chile in 1960, released about 5,600,000,000 times more than this one.

Aftershocks

In the first 4 days after it, USGS recorded no smaller earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 62 mi (100 km).

Earthquake history here

Before this earthquake, USGS had recorded 4 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger within 300 km (186 mi) since 1900. The strongest:

Official details, updates and the shaking map: USGS event page.

See every earthquake on October 22, 2026 or earthquakes by day.

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