Did you feel it? 3 small earthquakes detected north of Pasco

Three small earthquakes were reported just north of Pasco on Thursday and Friday by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

The latest was a 1.9 magnitude earthquake at about 11:17 a.m. Friday. it came about about 10 minutes after a 0.9 magnitude quake hit the same area.

On Thursday, a 0.7 magnitude quake was detected at 3:23 p.m, according to the seismic network.

They were less than a mile deep, likely in layers of Columbia River basalt, said Bill Steele, University of Washington spokesman for the network.

They probably would have been too small to feel, except by those very close by, he said. They were in the area of Taylor Flats Road and West Sagemoor Road.

Similar swarms of shallow quakes are common in the Tri-City vicinity, he said.

Last week, several similar small quakes were detected southeast of Desert Aire on the south side of the Columbia River near the Hanford Reach National Monument.

More small quakes in the coming week would not be surprising, Steele said.

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Did you feel it? 3 small earthquakes detected north of Pasco."