QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

Western Montana

· 4.1 km deep · released about 7.8 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Gallatin County 46 kmBroadwater County 49 kmJefferson County 67 kmPark County 75 kmMeagher County 77 kmMadison County 85 kmSweet Grass County 101 kmSilver Bow County 110 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
4.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Gallatin County, 46 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1221 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 7.8 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 1,400,000× 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 7.8 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 45.9272, -111.2337. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Gallatin County, MT 46 km (28 mi) N of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Broadwater County, MT 49 km (31 mi) SSE of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Jefferson County, MT 67 km (42 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Park County, MT 75 km (47 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Park County
Meagher County, MT 77 km (48 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Meagher County
Madison County, MT 85 km (53 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Madison County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.4 7 km NW of Willow Creek, Montana
  2. 1.5 10 km NNE of Three Forks, Montana
  3. 1.8 4 km WNW of Ponderosa Pines, Montana
  4. 2.2 11 km S of Radersburg, Montana
  5. 1.8 6 km NNW of Logan, Montana
  6. 1.6 5 km NW of Logan, Montana
  7. 1.6 5 km NW of Logan, Montana
  8. 1.8 8 km N of Manhattan, Montana
  9. 2.4 2 km E of Three Forks, Montana
  10. 3.0 1 km N of Belgrade, Montana
  11. 1.9 7 km WSW of Radersburg, Montana
  12. 2.6 15 km E of Townsend, Montana
  13. 2.4 20 km NNW of Springhill, Montana
  14. 1.6 6 km NW of Logan, Montana
  15. 1.9 5 km WSW of Ponderosa Pines, 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 4.2 on 2019-08-16 — it released about 7,700 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.