QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 2.2ml

8 km NW of Three Forks, Montana

· 5.0 km deep · released about 60 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Jefferson County 39 kmBroadwater County 43 kmGallatin County 60 kmMadison County 74 kmSilver Bow County 81 kmMeagher County 88 kmPark County 100 kmDeer Lodge County 119 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 2.2 (ml)
Depth
5.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Jefferson County, 39 km WNW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2412 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 60 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 3.2 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 250,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 180,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 16× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 2.2 about 60 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 45.9519, -111.6128. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Jefferson County, MT 39 km (25 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Jefferson County
Broadwater County, MT 43 km (27 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Broadwater County
Gallatin County, MT 60 km (37 mi) NW of here earthquakes near Gallatin County
Madison County, MT 74 km (46 mi) NNE of here earthquakes near Madison County
Silver Bow County, MT 81 km (50 mi) E of here earthquakes near Silver Bow County
Meagher County, MT 88 km (55 mi) SW of here earthquakes near Meagher County

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

Aftershocks so far

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

  1. 2.5 7 km WNW of Willow Creek, Montana
  2. 2.1 6 km ENE of Toston, Montana
  3. 1.7 5 km W of Townsend, Montana
  4. 1.5 4 km WNW of Townsend, Montana
  5. 1.5 11 km NE of Manhattan, Montana
  6. 1.7 6 km NNE of Logan, Montana
  7. 2.3 11 km ENE of Toston, Montana
  8. 2.0 7 km ENE of Toston, Montana
  9. 1.9 10 km SE of Ponderosa Pines, Montana
  10. 2.1 10 km SE of Ponderosa Pines, Montana
  11. 2.0 3 km W of Manhattan, Montana
  12. 1.7 2 km W of Manhattan, Montana
  13. 1.6 9 km SSE of Harrison, Montana
  14. 1.5 6 km W of Townsend, Montana
  15. 1.7 3 km SSW of Radersburg, 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 1,000 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.