43 km S of Virginia City, Montana

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 10 km (6 mi) from the epicentre. Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 6.6 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,300,000× the energy of this one
2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,600,000× the energy of this one
3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 140× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 6.6 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log₁₀E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.3 on 2016-06-13 — about 15,000 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 5 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:

1. 6.1 30 km SSW of Big Sky, Montana · 30 km ENE of this epicentre Nov 23, 1947
2. 5.2 32 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana · 25 km E of this epicentre Oct 21, 1964
3. 5.2 26 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana · 30 km ESE of this epicentre Mar 11, 1977
4. 5.0 31 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana · 25 km ESE of this epicentre Aug 19, 1959
5. 5.0 39 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana · 27 km SE of this epicentre Aug 20, 1959

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 44.9057, -111.8747. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

59 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

1. 1.5 26 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 12:06 UTC
2. 1.6 26 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 11:10 UTC
3. 1.9 23 km WSW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 21:09 UTC
4. 1.8 43 km NE of Spencer, Idaho 08:08 UTC
5. 1.8 33 km S of Ennis, Montana 01:37 UTC
6. 1.6 36 km N of Spencer, Idaho 21:24 UTC
7. 1.8 29 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana 00:28 UTC
8. 2.3 31 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana 23:25 UTC
9. 1.6 12 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 22:31 UTC
10. 2.1 26 km S of Virginia City, Montana 05:48 UTC
11. 1.6 10 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 10:10 UTC
12. 2.2 42 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 06:07 UTC
13. 1.7 43 km NE of Spencer, Idaho 15:37 UTC
14. 2.2 42 km NNE of Spencer, Idaho 13:56 UTC
15. 1.8 43 km NE of Spencer, Idaho 13:34 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 22:05 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.