6.6 Earthquake Hits Off Oregon, Felt Far Inland

A strong offshore earthquake rocked the Pacific Northwest Friday evening, shaking cities far inland. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.6 and was centered about 70 miles off the Oregon coast, said Paul Whitmore, a geophysicist at the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.

It struck at 7:50 p.m. The epicenter was in the Pacific about 120 miles northwest of Eureka, Calif., he said.

“We would call it a major earthquake,” Whitmore said but added that “the effect dies down fairly rapidly as you move inland.”

Reports indicated it could be felt as far inland as Eugene to the north and Sacramento, Calif., to the south.

On the floor of the state Assembly, where California lawmakers were considering the state budget, chandeliers swayed. Sacramento television stations reported a number of calls from residents who said they felt a temblor.

Pat Jorgenson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., said the USGS National Earthquake Center reported the quake occurred near the Gorda Ridge, an undersea formation in the Pacific Ocean.

The Friday night quake was in about the same location as a magnitude 7.0 quake that was felt strongly in that area on Nov. 8, 1980.

“That’s a pretty good size earthquake for that area,” Jorgenson said of Friday’s temblor.

There were no reports of any injuries or damage in the five southernmost Oregon counties covered by the Oregon State Police office in Medford.

“There were no fires, no calls for help of any kind,” said state police Sgt. David Scholten.

He said nobody in his office felt any effect, but “I was on the phone with one of our troopers in Roseburg, and he saw the wall shaking.” Roseburg is about 100 miles north of Medford.

Officials at the U.S. Coast Guard stations in both Coos Bay and North Bend in Oregon said they felt the quake but said no problems were reported.

“It jarred us around a little bit. We were all standing around in the ‘comm’ center and we saw a truck shaking,” said Seaman Michael Jolly. “It only lasted about six seconds.”

Shelly Cary, a dispatcher for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department in California said she didn’t feel the quake but received calls from people who had heard about it on the news.