No tsunami threat from swarm of earthquakes off Oregon Coast

COOS BAY, Ore - Six earthquakes between magnitude 4 and magnitude 5.5 had shook below the ocean off the coast of Oregon as of 2 p.m. Tuesday, according to USGS records.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a 5.5 quake at 1:58 p.m. and a quake of the same strength at 1:30 p.m. did not generate a tsunami threat for the West Coast.

The quakes started around 5:21 a.m. on Tuesday with a 4.2 quake.

A 4.0 quake shook in the same area around 6:57 a.m. followed by a 4.3 at 9:06 a.m. and another 4.0 at 11:15 a.m.

According to Doug Toomey with the University of Oregon’s Earth Sciences Department, several earthquakes occurred off the Oregon Coast, including a 5.5 off the coast of Coos Bay. It was over 250 miles offshore and several miles deep, occurring on the Blanco Transform.

He said it’s unrelated to the Cascadia Fault. No damage occurred.

According to Althea Rizzo, GeoHazards Program Coordinator at Oregon Office of Emergency Department, the earthquakes were far offshore in an area that is called the Blanco Fracture Zone - a “very seismically active region that presents no threat to the Oregon coast.”

Firefighters and police on the southern Oregon Coast had no reports of damage.