QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

42 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana

· 7.8 km deep · released about 8.1 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Madison County 44 kmGallatin County 76 kmFremont County 84 kmClark County 90 kmBeaverhead County 95 kmPark County 108 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 1.6 (ml)
Depth
7.8 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Madison County, 44 km NNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2381 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 8.1 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 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,300,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 120× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 8.1 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 44.9553, -111.7075. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Madison County, MT 44 km (27 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Madison County
Gallatin County, MT 76 km (47 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Fremont County, ID 84 km (52 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Fremont County
Clark County, ID 90 km (56 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Clark County
Beaverhead County, MT 95 km (59 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Beaverhead County
Park County, MT 108 km (67 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Park 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. 1.5 38 km SSW of Virginia City, Montana
  2. 2.2 35 km NNE of Spencer, Idaho
  3. 2.1 28 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana
  4. 1.7 43 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  5. 1.8 28 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana
  6. 1.6 28 km S of Ennis, Montana
  7. 1.8 28 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana
  8. 1.8 21 km N of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  9. 2.5 23 km SE of Virginia City, Montana
  10. 1.6 2 km SSE of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  11. 2.7 30 km W of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  12. 1.5 38 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  13. 1.5 7 km WSW of Ennis, Montana
  14. 2.3 41 km NW of Island Park, Idaho
  15. 2.0 36 km NNE of Spencer, Idaho

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 4.3 on 2016-06-13 — it released about 12,000 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.