A tribute to Mike Stickney, Montana’s earthquake expert!
Mike Stickney was a one-person earthquake hazards show in Montana for 45 years and a valuable contributor to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. His retirement in 2025 is a good excuse to celebrate his understated yet impactful career.
Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from Michael Poland, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
On August 17, 1959, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake rattled western Montana. The earthquake originated near Hebgen Lake and caused a landslide in the canyon of the Madison River, destroying a campground and causing the deaths of over 2 dozen people. The landslide also dammed the river, forming a new lake that federal, state, and local agencies, along with others, tirelessly worked to stabilize, preventing a potentially devastating flood.
The earthquake—still the strongest ever recorded in the Intermountain West region—was felt throughout the northern and northwestern United States and in several Canadian provinces, and it rattled the Missoula home of Mike Stickney, who was then just a few years old. He still remembers “the bed knocking against the wall.”
That may have been a formative experience. Even though he intended to study paleontology, earthquakes seemed to call out to Mike, and he worked in the University of Montana’s earthquake lab as he pursued his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology, which be obtained 19 years after the Hebgen Lake earthquake. In 1980, he earned his Master of Science in Geology from the University of Montana and joined the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, where he studied faulting and earthquake hazards in the Helena Valley. Two years later, Mike was made Director of the Bureau’s Earthquake Studies Office—a position he held for 43 years until his retirement in 2025.
It’s safe to say that no one knows more about Montana earthquakes than Mike Stickney. During his time with the Bureau, Mike established the Montana Regional Seismograph Network, which evolved from a single station when he started with the Bureau to about 50 stations today. Mike has been involved in all aspects of network operation, from driving hundreds of miles to install and repair remote seismic stations, to using the data to locate earthquakes and interpret seismic activity. Funding for earthquake research and monitoring in Montana has often been limited, so Mike formed numerous partnerships with other regional seismic networks, academic colleagues, industry experts, tribal governments, and the U.S. Geological Survey to ensure that seismic monitoring was maintained and expanded. Today, the Montana Regional Seismic Network is part of the system of earthquake monitoring that operates across the United States.
As if that wasn’t a big enough job, Mike has also been instrumental in mapping faults in Montana, including via paleoseismology studies that examine geological deposits to determine the timing and sizes of prehistoric earthquakes. More recently, Mike has been involved in mapping faults and landslides using lidar data in Montana, including faults associated with past earthquakes like the one that occurred in Madison Canyon in 1959. Lidar data has significantly improved hazard maps helping to reveal landforms that are otherwise difficult to see from the ground or even from the air. And Mike has represented the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory since the Bureau joined the consortium in 2013.
Despite the demanding schedule of being Montana’s only full-time earthquake specialist for several decades, Mike has been selfless with his time and expertise. He has given numerous public presentations on earthquake and landslide hazards, including at the Earthquake Lake visitor center near the epicenter of the 1959 event. During 2007–2015, Mike served as the President of the Tobacco Root Geological Society, and his contributions have been acknowledged by an honorary doctorate in Earth Sciences from Montana State University in 2004 and with the Tobacco Root Geological Society’s Hammer award in 2024. In what little spare time he has, Mike is an avid skier, using his skills to occasionally reach snowed-in seismic sites in need of maintenance during snowy winters.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is proud to have worked with Mike Stickney for so many years. He is an exceptional example of a generous and humble scientist who works to better understand geologic hazards and help improve knowledge and preparedness for his native Montana. Thank you, Mike, and congratulations on your incredible career and retirement!