Biggest Quake Yet Shakes Maupin Area

Maupin resident Kathleen Eckman says she was sitting at her desk, writing a note to one of her daughters on the computer Thursday afternoon, when the hutch it sits on “gave a little bitty rockin’ bounce,” with a small noise.

Big deal? Well, sort of.

Eckman apparently was among those in the Wasco County town of 500 along the Deschutes River to feel an earthquake that shook the area around 2:58 p.m., measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

The quake, estimated at 14 miles below the surface and seven miles east-southeast of Maupin, is the largest of dozens to shake the north-central Oregon area since mid-December, and bigger than the previous topper of 3.6 on March 1.

In fact, it appears to be the largest quake recorded in the region since a similar swarm of tremors rattled the area in 1976. Ten of those topped 3.0, the point at which people start to feel them (but below the level that can cause damage), and that swarm ended with the two largest, at 4.5 and 4.2 on the Richter scale, on April 13 and 17 of that year.

It’s not the only area east of the Cascades to feel rumbles lately, either. A swarm of eight small quakes, the largest a 3.0, happened late last month in the Lakeview area, well to the south.

Eckman said her computer sits on “a nice stable hutch,” and that just before 3 p.m., “it bounced. It just gave a little bitty, rockin’ bounce – and noise.”

“It just jiggled,” she recalled, “kind of like somebody had taken their hand and rocked it a tiny bit. It was a little noise.”

Eckman said she turned to her daughter, Vicki, who was playing cards with some neighbor kids, and said, “Did you feel that?”

“They didn’t feel it, but boy, I did,” Eckman said, adding that she’s felt most of the larger quakes.

The former Ventura, Calif resident said she’s not worried, but added, “Sometimes, when there’s multiuple ones, there may be a big one later. I lived in California and know what they feel like.

Eckman’s son-in-law, Dale Roberts, also lives in Maupin and felt the March 1 shaker, but was working in The Dalles when Thursday’s quake hit. But he said his sister-in-law, across the street, had been asleep and felt a thud, thinking someone was at the door, and went to answer it.

No one was there, of course.