QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

18 km WNW of Lincoln, Montana

· 9.7 km deep · released about 40 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Powell County 20 kmLewis and Clark County 40 kmMissoula County 76 kmGranite County 81 kmTeton County 100 kmDeer Lodge County 105 kmLake County 113 kmJefferson County 119 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 2.1 (ml)
Depth
9.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Powell County, 20 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2428 days ago

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

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 40 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 380,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 270,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 24× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 40 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.

Where

Epicentre 47.0252, -112.8952. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Powell County, MT 20 km (13 mi) N of here earthquakes near Powell County
Lewis and Clark County, MT 40 km (25 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Missoula County, MT 76 km (47 mi) E of here earthquakes near Missoula County
Granite County, MT 81 km (50 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Granite County
Teton County, MT 100 km (62 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Teton County
Deer Lodge County, MT 105 km (65 mi) N of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.0 16 km NNE of Avon, Montana
  2. 1.9 15 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  3. 2.5 Western Montana
  4. 3.1 15 km SE of Lincoln, Montana
  5. 2.3 25 km ENE of Seeley Lake, Montana
  6. 2.0 17 km ESE of Ovando, Montana
  7. 1.9 12 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  8. 1.8 22 km ENE of Seeley Lake, Montana
  9. 1.6 15 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  10. 2.6 10 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  11. 1.8 15 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  12. 2.2 14 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  13. 2.2 14 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  14. 2.4 32 km WSW of Augusta, Montana
  15. 1.6 38 km WSW of Augusta, Montana

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

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 5.8 on 2017-07-06 — it released about 380,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

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