QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.6ml

15 km E of Townsend, Montana

· 11 km deep · released about 240 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Broadwater County 14 kmMeagher County 43 kmJefferson County 61 kmGallatin County 89 kmJudith Basin County 112 kmPark County 112 kmCascade County 112 kmSilver Bow County 113 kmWheatland 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 2.6 (ml)
Depth
11 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Broadwater County, 14 km W
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 782 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 46.3090, -111.3182. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Broadwater County, MT 14 km (9 mi) E of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Meagher County, MT 43 km (27 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Meagher County
Jefferson County, MT 61 km (38 mi) ENE of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Gallatin County, MT 89 km (55 mi) N of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Judith Basin County, MT 112 km (69 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Judith Basin County
Park County, MT 112 km (70 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Park County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.6 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  2. 1.9 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  3. 1.6 7 km SSW of The Silos, Montana
  4. 1.8 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  5. 1.6 7 km W of Townsend, Montana
  6. 1.8 8 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  7. 1.8 7 km W of Townsend, Montana
  8. 1.9 8 km WSW of Townsend, Montana
  9. 1.6 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  10. 1.8 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  11. 1.8 6 km NE of Three Forks, Montana
  12. 1.7 8 km SSW of The Silos, Montana
  13. 1.7 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  14. 1.9 8 km W of Townsend, Montana
  15. 1.6 8 km W of Townsend, 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 4.2 on 2019-08-16 — it released about 250 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.