AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — A 2.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded near Fairchild Air Force Base Tuesday morning.
According to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), the earthquake occurred at 10:25 a.m. 13 miles west of Spokane and 62 miles south of Colville.
Questions had been circulating on whether or not the earthquake was the result of rock blasting or an explosion. Mouse Reusch, a seismologist with PNSN, confirmed with KREM 2 that the earthquake was 100% natural.
"We have identified this event as an earthquake at about 7 km (~4.3 miles) depth. So, much deeper than any rock blasting or explosion," Reusch said in a statement. "Man-made explosions do produce seismic waves that can look like an earthquake, but upon closer inspection, there are differences in the wave arrivals as well as when the bulk of the energy shows up in a seismogram. There has been seismic activity in this region in the past, but nothing this large in more than 10 years."
Fairchild Air Force Base Public Affairs gave a statement to KREM 2 which said, "Fairchild Air Force Base is aware of the earthquake yesterday. We verified there were no controlled detonations other activities on the base yesterday that could be perceived as the cause of an earthquake.
There are no bombing drills occurring on or around the base. We do have units conducting routine air refueling and aircraft maintenance training this week. In addition to our normal air refueling operations, this training is designed to ensure timely and efficient air refueling capabilities for a variety of missions. There are no bombers assigned to Fairchild Air Force Base, and there are no bomber aircraft or units participating in the training this week."
For more information on the earthquake, check out the full report here.
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