QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.8ml

14 km E of Lincoln, Montana

· 9.4 km deep · released about 15 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N Lewis and Clark County 22 kmPowell County 35 kmGranite County 93 kmCascade County 96 kmJefferson County 97 kmTeton County 99 kmBroadwater County 102 kmDeer Lodge County 106 kmMissoula County 106 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 1.8 (ml)
Depth
9.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Lewis and Clark County, 22 km NNE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1421 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 15 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.8 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 710,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 63× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.8 about 15 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 46.9402, -112.4989. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Lewis and Clark County, MT 22 km (14 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Powell County, MT 35 km (21 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Powell County
Granite County, MT 93 km (58 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Granite County
Cascade County, MT 96 km (60 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Cascade County
Jefferson County, MT 97 km (60 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Teton County, MT 99 km (62 mi) S of here earthquakes near Teton County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 3.1 13 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  2. 1.8 17 km W of Lincoln, Montana
  3. 2.1 3 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  4. 2.2 11 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  5. 1.6 15 km SE of Lincoln, Montana
  6. 2.2 21 km NNW of Lincoln, Montana
  7. 1.8 13 km ESE of Lincoln, Montana
  8. 1.8 19 km ENE of Ovando, Montana
  9. 2.0 11 km E of Lincoln, Montana
  10. 1.6 11 km E of Lincoln, Montana
  11. 1.5 19 km N of Avon, Montana
  12. 2.3 19 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  13. 1.8 20 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  14. 1.7 10 km ESE of Ovando, Montana
  15. 2.1 18 km SSE 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 1,000,000 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.