Quake Lake, Montana

Taken on the only dull day in the week I was away with friends in Yelowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. It was a very long day of driving, so was a good day for the weather to be less good for photography. This was one of the places we stopped at en route - Quake Lake, Montana. It had a very eerie feel to it, seeing the dead tree trunks sticking up above the surface of the lake.

"Quake Lake (officially Earthquake Lake) is a lake in southwestern Montana, United States. It was created after an earthquake struck on August 17, 1959, killing 28 people.[2] Today, Quake Lake is 190 feet (58 m) deep and 6 miles (9.7 km) long. US 287 follows the lake and offers glimpses of the effects of the earthquake and landslide. The lake is mostly within Gallatin National Forest.

The earthquake measured 7.5 on the Richter scale (revised by USGS to 7.3 and caused an 80 million ton landslide which formed a landslide dam on the Madison River. The earthquake was the most powerful to hit the state of Montana in historic times. The landslide traveled down the south flank of Sheep Mountain, at an estimated 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), killing 28 people who were camping along the shores of Hebgen Lake and downstream along the Madison River."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_Lake

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Yellowstone_earthquake