QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.5ml

12 km WSW of Sunburst, Montana

· 17 km deep · released about 5.4 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Toole County 34 kmGlacier County 69 kmPondera County 70 kmLiberty County 83 kmTeton County 116 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.5 (ml)
Depth
17 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Toole County, 34 km SE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 575 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 5.4 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 2,800,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 180× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.5 about 5.4 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 48.8488, -112.0768. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Toole County, MT 34 km (21 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Toole County
Glacier County, MT 69 km (43 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Glacier County
Pondera County, MT 70 km (43 mi) N of here earthquakes near Pondera County
Liberty County, MT 83 km (51 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Liberty County
Teton County, MT 116 km (72 mi) N of here earthquakes near Teton County

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

Aftershocks so far

No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.