QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.4ml

Western Montana

· 13 km deep · released about 120 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Powell County 30 kmGranite County 33 kmDeer Lodge County 61 kmMissoula County 69 kmLewis and Clark County 81 kmSilver Bow County 92 kmRavalli County 95 kmJefferson County 104 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 2.4 (ml)
Depth
13 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Powell County, 30 km NE
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2633 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 120 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.4 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 130,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 89,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 7.9× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.4 about 120 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 46.6405, -113.1824. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Powell County, MT 30 km (18 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Powell County
Granite County, MT 33 km (21 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Granite County
Deer Lodge County, MT 61 km (38 mi) N of here earthquakes near Deer Lodge County
Missoula County, MT 69 km (43 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Missoula County
Lewis and Clark County, MT 81 km (50 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Lewis and Clark County
Silver Bow County, MT 92 km (57 mi) NNW of here earthquakes near Silver Bow County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 1.5 4 km S of Drummond, Montana
  2. 1.9 13 km WNW of Ovando, Montana
  3. 1.6 5 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  4. 2.8 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  5. 3.3 6 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  6. 1.9 Western Montana
  7. 2.8 7 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  8. 3.2 6 km SSE of Lincoln, Montana
  9. 1.8 16 km ESE of Ovando, Montana
  10. 1.7 16 km ESE of Ovando, Montana
  11. 1.9 19 km W of Drummond, Montana
  12. 1.8 18 km W of Drummond, Montana
  13. 1.5 18 km W of Drummond, Montana
  14. 2.4 18 km W of Drummond, Montana
  15. 2.2 18 km W of Drummond, 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 7,900 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.