QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

Western Montana

· 8.1 km deep · released about 5.6 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Jefferson County 12 kmSilver Bow County 41 kmBroadwater County 61 kmDeer Lodge County 72 kmMadison County 87 kmGranite County 100 kmPowell County 101 kmGallatin County 102 kmMeagher County 113 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
8.1 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Jefferson County, 12 km ENE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1211 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 5.6 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 2,700,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,900,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 170× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.6 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 46.0858, -112.2027. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Jefferson County, MT 12 km (7 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Silver Bow County, MT 41 km (26 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Silver Bow County
Broadwater County, MT 61 km (38 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Deer Lodge County, MT 72 km (45 mi) E of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County
Madison County, MT 87 km (54 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Madison County
Granite County, MT 100 km (62 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Granite County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.8 5 km ENE of Butte, Montana
  2. 1.7 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  3. 1.7 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  4. 1.6 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  5. 1.9 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  6. 1.6 Western Montana
  7. 2.0 5 km ENE of Butte, Montana
  8. 1.7 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  9. 1.7 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  10. 1.7 Western Montana
  11. 1.7 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  12. 1.9 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  13. 2.0 4 km E of Butte, Montana
  14. 1.7 Western Montana
  15. 2.4 20 km N of Twin Bridges, 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 4.0 on 2016-09-03 — it released about 6,000 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.