Earthquake and aftershocks rattle western Montana!

MISSOULA, Montana (PNN) - July 7, 2017 - An earthquake struck western Montana around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service in Great Falls said on Twitter that the shaking was felt as far away as 500 miles away.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit about 6 miles southeast of Lincoln, Montana.

The Lewis and Clark Sheriff's Office reports power in Lincoln has been restored, and there have been no reports of injury or damage in the area.

Viewers around western Montana, including Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, Gardiner, Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Hamilton, and as far as Spokane, Washington and Stirling, Alberta, Canada, tell us they felt the quake.

A 76-year-old resident of Helena, which is about 34 miles away from the quake's epicenter, said it was the strongest seismic activity that he had ever felt. Ray Anderson said his wife told him the temblor woke up the dogs.

Data from the Chamberlain Mountain seismograph shows a marked difference in seismic activity from Wednesday to Thursday.

The following earthquakes are three of Montana's largest earthquakes in the last century.

In August of 1959, a 7.5 quake killed 29 people and did $11 million worth of damage and became the largest earthquake to ever hit Montana.

In 1935, a series of several hundred quakes hit Helena. The state reports that quake damaged more than half of Helena's buildings.

In 2005, a 5.6 quake rattled Dillon and damaged part of the old main hall at the University of Montana Western.