Earthquake Shakes Western Montana
Written by Andrew-Rossi on July 6, 2017
A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck in western Montana early Thursday, shortly after midnight local time, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The earthquake was located about 33 miles northwest of Helena, about 7 miles southeast of Lincoln. Residents as far away as Spokane and Seattle, Washington, reportedly felt the tremors. Lewis & Clark County Sheriff’s Office stated that power had been restored early Thursday morning and that as of 2 a.m. there were no reports of injury or damage in the Lincoln area.
A Missoula-based news anchor tweeted a viewer’s photos of damage at a Walmart near Lincoln, showing shattered jars of spaghetti sauce and salsa on the floor.
The quake’s epicenter was some 230 miles from Yellowstone National Park — and because it was felt from far away, the shaking led some in the area to wonder whether the Yellowstone supervolcano was waking up. But the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s most recent volcano alert level is listed as normal, and the park service has said that while the area normally has more than 1,000 earthquakes each year, a large eruption is “very unlikely” to strike in the next 1,000 -10,000 years.
