QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.6ml

5 km SE of Three Forks, Montana

· 2.7 km deep · released about 7.3 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Gallatin County 47 kmBroadwater County 52 kmJefferson County 52 kmMadison County 68 kmPark County 87 kmSilver Bow County 90 kmMeagher County 91 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
2.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Gallatin County, 47 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1136 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 7.3 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 2,100,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 130× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.6 about 7.3 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 45.8660, -111.4983. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Gallatin County, MT 47 km (29 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Broadwater County, MT 52 km (32 mi) S of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Jefferson County, MT 52 km (32 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Madison County, MT 68 km (42 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Madison County
Park County, MT 87 km (54 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Park County
Silver Bow County, MT 90 km (56 mi) E 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

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

  1. 2.0 4 km ESE of Three Forks, Montana
  2. 2.4 7 km NW of Willow Creek, Montana
  3. 1.9 8 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  4. 1.5 10 km NNE of Three Forks, Montana
  5. 1.8 4 km WNW of Ponderosa Pines, Montana
  6. 2.0 7 km SE of Pony, Montana
  7. 2.2 11 km S of Radersburg, Montana
  8. 1.8 6 km NNW of Logan, Montana
  9. 1.6 5 km NW of Logan, Montana
  10. 1.6 5 km NW of Logan, Montana
  11. 1.8 8 km N of Manhattan, Montana
  12. 1.7 6 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  13. 2.5 13 km SSE of Harrison, Montana
  14. 2.8 0 km NW of Cardwell, Montana
  15. 2.4 2 km E of Three Forks, 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 8,200 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.