QuakeIndex

mining explosion · reviewed by a seismologist

M 3.5ml

33 km SW of Birney, Montana

· 0.0 km deep · released about 2.7 tons of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Sheridan County 39 kmBig Horn County 60 kmPowder River County 106 kmBig Horn County 113 kmRosebud County 116 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 3.5 (ml)
Depth
0.0 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Sheridan County, 39 km S
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1908 days ago

This was a small earthquake. Shaking like this is often felt indoors nearby and very rarely causes damage.

USGS catalogues this as mining explosion, not an earthquake.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 2.7 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.5 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 63,000× the energy of this one
  2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 2,800× the energy of this one
  3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 2,000× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 3.5 about 2.7 tons of TNT
  5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 5.6× more

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 45.1336, -106.8517. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Sheridan County, WY 39 km (24 mi) N of here earthquakes near Sheridan County
Big Horn County, MT 60 km (38 mi) ESE of here earthquakes near Big Horn County
Powder River County, MT 106 km (66 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Powder River County
Big Horn County, WY 113 km (70 mi) NE of here earthquakes near Big Horn County
Rosebud County, MT 116 km (72 mi) S of here earthquakes near Rosebud County
Yellowstone County, MT 142 km (89 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Yellowstone 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. 2.7 27 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  2. 3.4 32 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  3. 2.7 32 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  4. 3.4 30 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  5. 2.8 31 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  6. 3.4 30 km NE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  7. 2.7 31 km NNE of Sheridan, Wyoming
  8. 3.3 23 km WSW of Birney, Montana
  9. 3.4 31 km NNE of Ranchester, Wyoming
  10. 3.0 32 km SW of Birney, Montana
  11. 3.0 33 km SW of Birney, Montana
  12. 2.9 32 km SSW of Birney, Montana
  13. 2.9 17 km WSW of Birney, Montana
  14. 2.9 34 km SW of Birney, Montana
  15. 2.9 30 km SW of Birney, 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.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.