QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

4 km S of Drummond, Montana

· 8.5 km deep · released about 5.9 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Powell County 29 kmGranite County 34 kmDeer Lodge County 59 kmMissoula County 73 kmLewis and Clark County 80 kmSilver Bow County 89 kmRavalli County 96 kmJefferson County 100 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 1.5 (ml)
Depth
8.5 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Powell County, 29 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1616 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 5.9 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,800,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 160× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.9 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 46.6262, -113.1402. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Powell County, MT 29 km (18 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Powell County
Granite County, MT 34 km (21 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Granite County
Deer Lodge County, MT 59 km (37 mi) N of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County
Missoula County, MT 73 km (45 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Missoula County
Lewis and Clark County, MT 80 km (50 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Silver Bow County, MT 89 km (55 mi) NNW 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

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

  1. 1.7 16 km W of Lincoln, Montana
  2. 2.4 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  3. 2.0 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  4. 1.8 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  5. 1.9 7 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  6. 1.8 19 km NNW of Avon, Montana
  7. 2.8 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  8. 2.2 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  9. 1.6 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  10. 1.7 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  11. 1.8 19 km NNW of Avon, Montana
  12. 3.2 12 km NNW of Avon, Montana
  13. 1.6 12 km N of Garrison, Montana
  14. 2.9 22 km WSW of Ovando, Montana
  15. 1.8 6 km SSE of Lincoln, 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 5.0 on 2017-07-06 — it released about 160,000 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.