QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.1ml

15 km SSW of Ovando, Montana

· 14 km deep · released about 1,300 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Powell County 19 kmMissoula County 57 kmGranite County 57 kmLewis and Clark County 66 kmDeer Lodge County 87 kmLake County 109 kmRavalli County 114 kmSilver Bow County 116 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 3.1 (ml)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Measured shaking
intensity III (ShakeMap)
Nearest
Powell County, 19 km ESE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2670 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 1,300 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.1 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 11,000× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 7,900× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.1 about 1,300 lb of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 1.4× more

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 46.8802, -113.1785. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Powell County, MT 19 km (12 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Powell County
Missoula County, MT 57 km (35 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Missoula County
Granite County, MT 57 km (35 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Granite County
Lewis and Clark County, MT 66 km (41 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Deer Lodge County, MT 87 km (54 mi) N of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County
Lake County, MT 109 km (68 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Lake County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 8 km WNW of Lincoln, Montana
  2. 1.8 6 km W of Drummond, Montana
  3. 2.2 27 km NNW of Lincoln, Montana
  4. 2.4 8 km WSW of Lincoln, Montana
  5. 2.0 11 km WSW of Drummond, Montana
  6. 1.9 5 km W of Lincoln, Montana
  7. 3.0 7 km WNW of Lincoln, Montana
  8. 2.3 25 km ENE of Seeley Lake, Montana
  9. 2.0 17 km ESE of Ovando, Montana
  10. 1.8 22 km ENE of Seeley Lake, Montana
  11. 1.8 15 km W of Drummond, Montana
  12. 1.7 15 km W of Drummond, Montana
  13. 2.0 Western Montana
  14. 1.6 3 km WNW of Lincoln, Montana
  15. 2.8 6 km WNW 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 5.0 on 2017-07-06 — it released about 710 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.