QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6ml

15 km SSE of Elkhorn, Montana

· 6.7 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Jefferson County 12 kmBroadwater County 38 kmSilver Bow County 64 kmGallatin County 90 kmMeagher County 90 kmMadison County 91 kmDeer Lodge County 95 kmPowell County 111 kmLewis and Clark County 115 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 2.6 (ml)
Depth
6.7 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Jefferson County, 12 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2915 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 240 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.6 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 45,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 4× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.6 about 240 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 46.1395, -111.9055. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Jefferson County, MT 12 km (7 mi) E of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Broadwater County, MT 38 km (24 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Silver Bow County, MT 64 km (40 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Silver Bow County
Gallatin County, MT 90 km (56 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Meagher County, MT 90 km (56 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Meagher County
Madison County, MT 91 km (56 mi) N of here earthquakes near Madison County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.7 10 km ENE of Townsend, Montana
  2. 2.2 15 km S of Whitehall, Montana
  3. 1.6 5 km W of Townsend, Montana
  4. 1.7 6 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  5. 1.5 7 km SSW of The Silos, Montana
  6. 2.5 2 km ESE of Logan, Montana
  7. 1.9 9 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  8. 1.6 7 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  9. 1.8 7 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  10. 2.0 16 km S of Whitehall, Montana
  11. 1.6 1 km SE of South Hills, Montana
  12. 1.8 3 km N of Logan, Montana
  13. 1.7 4 km WSW of Three Forks, Montana
  14. 1.7 17 km S of Whitehall, Montana
  15. 2.2 6 km W of Willow Creek, 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 140 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.