3.5 Earthquake Shakes Fern Acres, Hawaiʻi

Hawaiʻi Earthquake, 9/26/13. Image courtesy HVO and Google maps.

By Wendy Osher

A preliminary magnitude 3.5 earthquake was reported at 8:36 a.m. HST on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013, 11 miles south of Fern Acres on Hawaiʻi Island, officials said.

The quake was located at a depth of 4.4 miles, according to the USGS.

The USGS reports the quake was also 17 miles SSW of Hawaiian Paradise Park; 26 miles S of Hilo; 62 miles ESE of Kailua-Kona; and 224 miles SE of Honolulu, Oʻahu.

No advisories were issued for this event.

According to the USGS Did You Feel It website, residents in Keaʻau and Pāpaʻikou reported feeling the tremor.

There have been more than 30 magnitude 6.0 or higher earthquakes in the Hawaiian Islands since 1868, according to officials with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

“The probability that another destructive —magnitude 6.5 or higher— earthquake will strike the Hawaiian Islands in the next 10 years is 50%; in the next 20 years, the probability increases to 75%,” officials said in a press release issued today.

“The October 2006 magnitude-6.7 and 6.0 earthquakes, located in West Hawai‘i, caused $200 million in damages on the Islands of Hawai‘i and Maui, as well as an extended power outage on O‘ahu,” according to Paul Okubo, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.