Earthquake near West Yellowstone, MT

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

At this magnitude and depth, people at rest would likely notice it out to about 76 km (47 mi) from the epicentre. In West Yellowstone, 25 km away, the estimate is intensity III (weak). Estimated from magnitude, depth and distance with the intensity equation USGS Did You Feel It? uses; felt reports, where there are any, are the measurement.

Likely felt in: West Yellowstone 25 km, intensity III. Estimated for each town centre; each link is that town's own record.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 5.5 tons of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 4.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

1. Northridge, California 1994 M 6.7 31,000× the energy of this one
2. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,400× the energy of this one
3. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 970× the energy of this one
4. This earthquake M 3.7 about 5.5 tons of TNT
5. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 this one released 12× 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.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.4 on 2017-06-16 — about 9.4 times the energy of this one.

Before 2016, the USGS record lists 12 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km; the five largest:

1. 7.2 The 1959 Hebgen Lake, Montana Earthquake · 27 km W of this epicentre Aug 18, 1959
2. 6.5 14 km N of Madison Junction, Wyoming · 5 km SSW of this epicentre Aug 18, 1959
3. 6.3 22 km SW of Mammoth, Wyoming · 1 km NW of this epicentre Aug 18, 1959
4. 6.0 21 km E of West Yellowstone, Montana · 18 km S of this epicentre Aug 19, 1959
5. 5.9 26 km SSE of Mammoth, Wyoming · 21 km ESE of this epicentre Jun 30, 1975

Since 2016: the QuakeIndex catalogue (US, M1.5+), built from the USGS FDSN event service. Before 2016: USGS ComCat, M5+ from 1900. Distances are between epicentres. This is the record, not a forecast.

Where

Epicentre 44.8078, -110.8597. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

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

Aftershocks so far

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

1. 2.3 23 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 08:42 UTC
2. 1.9 7 km ESE of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 07:25 UTC
3. 2.0 7 km ESE of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 04:45 UTC
4. 1.6 23 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 00:50 UTC
5. 2.5 23 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 15:11 UTC
6. 2.2 23 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 14:27 UTC
7. 3.7 22 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 13:22 UTC
8. 2.7 22 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 13:00 UTC
9. 1.8 22 km SSW of Mammoth, Wyoming 12:59 UTC
10. 2.3 24 km ENE of West Yellowstone, Montana 11:09 UTC
11. 1.6 50 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana 10:35 UTC
12. 1.5 50 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana 10:29 UTC
13. 1.6 50 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana 10:28 UTC
14. 2.0 50 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana 10:09 UTC
15. 2.0 7 km ESE of Hebgen Lake Estates, Montana 01:50 UTC

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of 21:52 UTC. QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

On USGS

• The official USGS event page — the source of record for every value above
• Did you feel it? Report it to USGS — reports go to USGS, not to us
• ShakeMap for this event, when USGS has produced one

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