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Earthquakes Near Me / Montana

Montana Earthquakes: Recent Quakes and the Largest on Record

Montana averages 47 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more a year (2016 to 2025), and the largest in the USGS catalog since 1900 is the M7.2 of August 18, 1959, the Hebgen Lake, Montana Earthquake.

Live from the USGS

Earthquakes near Billings in the last 30 days

Every quake within 155 miles of Billings, Montana’s largest city, newest first. For your own address, enter a ZIP code.

Within
Magnitude
Reading the USGS earthquake catalog for magnitude 1.5 and up within 155 miles of Billings.

Live from the USGS earthquake catalog. Times are Mountain time; felt reports and the shaking level come from Did You Feel It? A new quake can take a few minutes to appear and its magnitude can be revised.

Montana by the numbers

USGS catalog, read October 10, 2026
47
Quakes of M2.5+ a year
the average, 2016 to 2025
9th
Rank of 50 states
by quakes of M2.5+ a year
M7.2
Largest since 1900
August 18, 1959
8
M3+ in 2026
through October 10, 2026

Montana averages 47 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more a year, counting 468 from 2016 to 2025, which ranks it 9th of the fifty states.

Since 1990

Montana earthquakes by year

The USGS catalog lists 521 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more in Montana from 1990 to 2025, the most in 2017 (62). 2016 to 2025: 167; 2006 to 2015: 120.

Magnitude 3 and up in Montana, 1990 to 2025; the tallest bar is 62. From the USGS catalog, read October 10, 2026.
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Since 1900

The 10 largest earthquakes in Montana

The largest earthquake in Montana in the USGS catalog since 1900 is the M7.2 of August 18, 1959, the Hebgen Lake, Montana Earthquake. The most recent of magnitude 4 or more was the M4.2 of January 29, 2026, 9 km N of Black Eagle, Montana.

  1. 1M7.2
    The 1959 Hebgen Lake, Montana EarthquakeAugust 18, 1959, 7.5 mi (12 km) deep
  2. 2M6.6
    The 1925 Clarkston Valley, Montana EarthquakeJune 28, 1925
  3. 3M6.4
    Clarkston Valley, Montana (Aftershock)June 28, 1925
  4. 4M6.1
    The 1935 Helena, Montana Earthquakes (Mainshock)October 19, 1935, 9.3 mi (15 km) deep
  5. 5M6.1
    30 km SSW of Big Sky, MontanaNovember 23, 1947, 9.3 mi (15 km) deep
  6. 6M6.0
    16 km N of West Yellowstone, MontanaAugust 18, 1959, 6.2 mi (10 km) deep
  7. 7M6.0
    47 km WNW of West Yellowstone, MontanaAugust 19, 1959, 9.3 mi (15 km) deep
  8. 8M5.9
    The 1935 Helena, Montana Earthquakes (Largest Aftershock)October 31, 1935, 6.2 mi (10 km) deep
  9. 9M5.9
    2 km ENE of Helena, MontanaOctober 12, 1935, 3.1 mi (5 km) deep
  10. 10M5.8
    11 km SE of Lincoln, MontanaJuly 6, 2017, 7.6 mi (12 km) deep

From the USGS ComCat catalog, every magnitude since 1900, read October 10, 2026. Each place links to the quake’s USGS page.

The faults

Fault zones in Montana

  • Intermountain Seismic Belt
  • Centennial Tectonic Belt
“This so-called Centennial Tectonic Belt includes at least eight major active faults and has been the site of the two largest historic earthquakes in the northern Rocky Mountains, the August 18, 1959 Hebgen Lake, Montana earthquake (M 7.2), and the October 28, 1983 Borah Peak, Idaho earthquake (M 6.9).”

Named by the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, read October 9, 2026.

When it shakes

What to do in an earthquake

  1. 1

    Drop

    Drop where you are onto hands and knees.

  2. 2

    Cover

    Cover your head and neck with one arm and hand. If a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl underneath it for shelter. If no shelter is nearby, crawl next to an interior wall (away from windows). Stay on your knees; bend over to protect vital organs.

  3. 3

    Hold On

    Hold until the shaking stops. If under shelter, hold on with one hand and be ready to move with it when the shelter moves. If not under shelter, hold on to your head and neck with both arms and hands.

Ready.gov’s words, from Ready.gov: Earthquakes (updated Sep 9, 2026, read October 9, 2026). Practice it with The Great ShakeOut: Earthquake Drills.

A steep grassy step in the ground running through a pine forest, the scarp of an old fault rupture
The fault scarp near Quake Lake in Montana left by the Hebgen Lake earthquake of August 17, 1959, photographed in 1997. “Fault scarp a Quake Lake 19970627”, Jstuby, CC0
Questions

Montana earthquake questions

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Sources. The live list: the USGS FDSN event service. Montana’s counts and largest quakes: the USGS ComCat catalog, read October 10, 2026, counted inside the state’s Census boundary and within 150 km of its coast where USGS names the state. Billings: the state’s most populous city in the Census Vintage 2024 estimates. Older years hold fewer small quakes because fewer instruments were listening.

Hero photograph: the San Andreas Fault across the Carrizo Plain. “Kluft-photo-Carrizo-Plain-Nov-2007-Img 0327” by Ikluft, CC BY-SA 4.0