A magnitude 3.3 earthquake shook things up enough in Yellowstone National Park on Thursday morning for people as far away as 30 miles to notice.
The epicenter of the 7:20 a.m. earthquake was along the Grand Loop Road, south of Canyon Junction, at a depth of 6.53 kilometers. That’s just over 4 miles beneath the surface.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), at least 14 people reported feeling the earthquake within 30 miles of the epicenter. Its intensity was low, and there were no reports of damage.
The USGS categorized the earthquake as a III “Weak” on the Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) scale. That means the quake’s energy would be noticeable but not much stronger than the vibrations caused by a large truck driving by.
It's not even the largest earthquake in Wyoming this week. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake was detected west of Rock Springs on Tuesday.
All Shook Up
Earthquakes are a very common occurrence in Yellowstone, one of the most tectonically active places in North America. According to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, there were 118 earthquakes detected in June alone.
Thursday morning’s magnitude 3.3 quake was Yellowstone’s largest of the year so far, but a few earthquakes of that magnitude are expected every year.
“Earthquakes that get into the magnitude 3 range are rare, but there are usually three to 10 of those in the Yellowstone area every year,” Mike Poland, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, previously told Cowboy State Daily. “The vast majority of earthquakes are magnitude 2 and below.”
In 2025, there were 1,119 earthquakes located in and around Yellowstone. The largest quakes were three magnitude 3.7 events.
That was a “quiet year,” according to Poland. In an average year, there are between 1,500 and 2,500 earthquakes detected in Yellowstone.
Catching The Feels
When a magnitude 3.9 earthquake hit Yellowstone in January 2025, the largest quake in the park since 2023, it wasn’t even detected on the Raspberry Shake seismograph installed at the Wyoming Geological Survey's headquarters in Laramie.
"We were about 350 miles from the epicenter,” said geologist James Mauch. “It was a bit too far away and low in magnitude to detect in Laramie.”
According to Mauch, magnitude 3.0 earthquakes are “very typical activity for Yellowstone.”
They might be slightly stronger than the average Yellowstone earthquake, but not strong enough to be unusual, he said.
“We typically get around five ‘felt’ earthquakes every year, so this is right in line with the average,” he said.
What the earthquake doesn’t indicate is any significant change in Yellowstone’s volcanic systems. Even at a depth of 4 miles, Thursday morning’s quake was too shallow to indicate anything volcanic, which is true for most of Yellowstone’s earthquakes.
“Because there are so many faults in the region and a lot of water moving around in the subsurface, Yellowstone is a recipe for lots and lots of earthquakes,” Poland said. “There’s nothing particularly anomalous about (a magnitude 3.3 earthquake), and none of these quakes are associated with any volcanic activity.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
