On February 14, 1946, at 7:18 p.m. an earthquake strikes, centered between Olympia and Tacoma.
The most damage occurred in Seattle’s filled-in waterfront and tideland industrial area. The epicenter of the magnitude 6.3 quake was located at 47 degrees 18’ 00” North Latitude and 122 degrees 54’ 00” West Longitude. The quake was felt over a 165,000 square mile area.
S.T. Algermissen and Samuel T Harding, The Puget Sound, Washington Earthquake of April 29, 1965 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965), 4; Linda Lawrance Noson, Anthony Quamar, and Gerald W. Thorsen, Washington State Earthquake Hazards (Olympia: Washington Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 85, 1988), 22, 49.
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