QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.3ml

5 km E of Elliston, Montana

· 7.0 km deep · released about 77 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Powell County 53 kmJefferson County 54 kmLewis and Clark County 62 kmBroadwater County 71 kmSilver Bow County 78 kmDeer Lodge County 79 kmGranite County 84 kmMeagher County 110 kmCascade County 114 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 2.3 (ml)
Depth
7.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Powell County, 53 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 406 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 77 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.3 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 200,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 140,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 12× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.3 about 77 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 46.5650, -112.3638. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Powell County, MT 53 km (33 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Powell County
Jefferson County, MT 54 km (34 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Lewis and Clark County, MT 62 km (39 mi) S of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Broadwater County, MT 71 km (44 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Silver Bow County, MT 78 km (48 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Silver Bow County
Deer Lodge County, MT 79 km (49 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 16 km NE of Helena Valley Northwest, Montana
  2. 1.5 1 km SSE of South Hills, Montana
  3. 1.7 0 km NNW of South Hills, Montana
  4. 1.7 8 km S of Marysville, Montana
  5. 1.7 13 km SE of Lincoln, Montana
  6. 1.9 1 km SSE of South Hills, Montana
  7. 2.4 2 km ESE of Clancy, Montana
  8. 2.4 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  9. 2.0 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  10. 1.5 14 km SE of Lincoln, Montana
  11. 1.8 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  12. 1.9 7 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  13. 1.8 19 km NNW of Avon, Montana
  14. 2.8 19 km S of Lincoln, Montana
  15. 1.6 14 km ESE 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 5.8 on 2017-07-06 — it released about 200,000 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.