SMITHS FERRY, Idaho — Two relatively minor earthquakes shook parts of Gem and Valley counties Sunday evening.
The U.S. Geological Survey detected one quake at 6:22 p.m. MST about 5.6 miles west-southwest of Smiths Ferry, with a magnitude of 2.9. The USGS reports a depth of about 9 miles.
A second quake, with a magnitude of 2.7, occurred at 7:57 p.m. in northern Gem County, about 9.3 miles west-southwest of Smiths Ferry, with a depth of about 8 miles.
Many people were discussing the quakes on social media Sunday night. Two people, in Ola and Cascade, reported to the USGS that they felt the first quake, the magnitude 2.9. One person in Cascade reported feeling the second quake.
Earthquakes with magnitudes between 2 and 3 are classified as "weak" by the USGS, but they can still be felt miles away from the epicenter. Quakes of that intensity may rattle shelves, but typically don't cause widespread damage.
The depths of Sunday's earthquakes, 8 and 9 miles, are considered shallow. Earthquakes can be hundreds of miles deep. In shallow quakes, seismic waves lose less energy than waves from deeper quakes before they reach the surface. Deeper quakes are usually more widely felt, but less damaging.
The strongest earthquake on record in Idaho, the October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake, had a magnitude of 6.9. The state's second-strongest, a magnitude 6.5, occurred on March 31, 2020, about 19 miles northwest of Stanley.
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