All shook up: Earthquake felt in Boundary County

BONNERS FERRY — As if the community was not already shook up with the COVID-19 pandemic, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake 45 miles west of Challis gave Boundary County residents a brief bumpy ride shortly before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers, which is about 6.2 miles, and it happened within the Intermountain Seismic Belt, which is a prominent zone of recorded seismicity in the Intermountain West.

However, they state that historic seismicity in the immediate vicinity of the earthquake is sparse and no earthquakes of Magnitude 5 or higher have occurred within 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) of the event in the past 50 years,

The U.S. Geological Survey website states that the event occurred due to a “complex strike slip faulting within the shallow crust of the North America plate.”

Soon after the earthquake shook Boundary County up, social media was filled with people reporting feeling the quake.

Lori Werder wrote, “All our hanging lights and plants were swaying.”

Brian and Cynthia Cummings reported that right before the quake, one of their children looked out the window and asked why the sheep were acting funny.

“Some were darting around and others were crouched low … then the light fixtures were swinging,” they wrote on Facebook.

Don Beggerly said that it “felt weird” while Nancy Russell called it an “interesting ride!”