There have now been 82 earthquakes in the last month in central Idaho. The U.S. Geological Survey reports magnitudes of 2.5 to 4.3 in strength. Until this weekend, all but one had been centered northwest of Stanley, Idaho, but yesterday, three shook the ground to the east, near Highway 93. One was the strongest so far at 4.3 on the Richter Scale. People reported feeling it as far away as Caldwell, west of Boise. This earthquake swarm is roughly in the same location as the 6.5 earthquake back in 2020 that was felt all over the northwest.
“The fact that the Sawtooth Mountains and the Sawtooth Valley are there is the result of geological processes that manifest themselves through earthquakes.”
We spoke with the Idaho Geological Survey Director, Dr. Claudio Berti. He says Idaho is definitely earthquake country, and this earthquake swarm is something to be prepared for, but not something to be worried about. It may be linked to the Sawtooth Fault that runs to the east of that mountain range, but he says they don’t know that for sure yet. Just yesterday they installed two new monitoring devices in the area that will allow them to track events lower than 2.5 to help identify the location better.
“It has good evidence of a long history of seismicity and rupture at the surface. There’s very good evidence of scars in places where the ground has been moved or shifted, one block in respect to the others.”
Berti says he’s heard some wild theories about what’s happening, and no, it’s not part of the Yellowstone Caldera, and there’s not a hidden volcano about to erupt.
