QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.1ml

28 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana

· 11 km deep · released about 51 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Madison County 31 kmGallatin County 76 kmBeaverhead County 82 kmClark County 93 kmFremont County 97 kmSilver Bow County 113 kmPark County 114 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
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Madison County, 31 km N
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1852 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 51 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 5.8 300,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 210,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 19× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.1 about 51 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 45.0458, -111.8595. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Madison County, MT 31 km (19 mi) S of here earthquakes near Madison County
Gallatin County, MT 76 km (47 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Beaverhead County, MT 82 km (51 mi) E of here earthquakes near Beaverhead County
Clark County, ID 93 km (58 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Clark County
Fremont County, ID 97 km (60 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Fremont County
Silver Bow County, MT 113 km (70 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Silver Bow 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. 1.7 37 km SSE of Virginia City, Montana
  2. 1.9 29 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  3. 1.5 43 km NE of Spencer, Idaho
  4. 2.1 34 km S of Virginia City, Montana
  5. 1.5 35 km S of Virginia City, Montana
  6. 1.7 33 km S of Virginia City, Montana
  7. 2.3 40 km NE of Spencer, Idaho
  8. 2.4 30 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  9. 1.5 29 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  10. 1.6 42 km S of Alder, Montana
  11. 2.2 32 km S of Virginia City, Montana
  12. 1.5 29 km S of Ennis, Montana
  13. 1.6 23 km WNW of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana
  14. 1.5 Idaho-Montana border region
  15. 1.8 53 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 1,900 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.