Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist
M 1.4ml
68 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana
Yes. A magnitude 1.4 earthquake was recorded 68 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana, at 9:59 am MDT on 21 October 2026 (15:59 UTC), 12 km deep. No felt reports to USGS yet.
- When
- Montana today
- every earthquake in Montana in the last 24 hours
- Magnitude
- M 1.4 (ml)
- Depth
- 12 km below the surface
- Felt
- no reports yet
- Nearest
- Teton County, 36 km S
- Nearest mapped fault
- Buffalo Fork fault, under 1 km from its surface trace — near is not the same as on
- Status
- Reviewed by a seismologist
USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 5 hours ago
Earthquake alerts for West Yellowstone, MT
Get a notification in this browser when USGS records an earthquake near West Yellowstone, MT. No account or email needed.
Alerts are on for .
Not a warning. An alert comes after USGS publishes a quake, usually minutes after the shaking. For early warning use ShakeAlert, through your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts or the MyShake app.
This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.
At this magnitude and depth it was probably too small to be felt, even directly above it. 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.
How big was it?
This earthquake released about 3.4 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.4 would have released about 32 times as much.
- Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 4,400,000× the energy of this one
- Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 3,100,000× the energy of this one
- Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 280× the energy of this one
- This earthquake M 1.4 about 3.4 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.
For this area
The largest earthquake within 50 km since 2016 was M 4.2 on 2022-05-11 — about 19,000 times the energy of this one.
Before 2016, the USGS record lists 3 earthquakes of M5 or more within 50 km:
- 5.9 26 km SSE of Mammoth, Wyoming · 47 km NNW of this epicentre
- 5.1 51 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana · 20 km NW of this epicentre
- 5.0 62 km ESE of West Yellowstone, Montana · 8 km NNW of this epicentre
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 44.3645, -110.3428. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Nearby places
| Place | Distance | Direction from the epicentre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teton County, WY | 36 km (22 mi) | S | earthquakes near Teton County |
| Park County, WY | 61 km (38 mi) | ENE | earthquakes near Park County |
| Fremont County, ID | 92 km (57 mi) | W | earthquakes near Fremont County |
| Teton County, ID | 97 km (60 mi) | SW | earthquakes near Teton County |
| Madison County, ID | 123 km (76 mi) | WSW | earthquakes near Madison County |
| Carbon County, MT | 141 km (88 mi) | NE | earthquakes near Carbon County |
Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.
Aftershocks so far
No further earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.
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
- 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.