An earthquake strong enough to rattle residents as far away as Alberta and southwestern B.C. struck western Montana early Thursday.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit just after midnight about 9.7 kilometres southeast of Lincoln, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

It was followed my several smaller quakes, clustered in the same general area. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Residents in Lincoln briefly lost power and there was a gas leak in Helena, the National Weather Service in Great Falls said on Twitter.

The Independent Record reported people felt the quake as far away as Bozeman, Idaho, and Great Falls.

People in parts of southern Alberta and southeastern B.C. also reported feeling a quake.

"The glasses all started rattling in my cupboard and when I looked at the hanging lamp it was swinging," Nelson resident Brooke Campbell wrote to CBC before news of the quake broke online. "The rattling went on for a little while. I am sure it was an earthquake."

CBC seismologist Johanna Wagstaffe said the quake occurred along a shallow strike slip crustal fault, meaning an area where two rocks move side by side on a horizontal plane.

"Because of the type of geology in this region, earthquakes can be felt much farther away than quakes on the coast," she said

Ray Anderson, 76, told The Associated Press that it was the strongest seismic activity he had ever felt while living in Helena, which is about 54 kilometres away from the quake's epicentre. He said his wife told him the temblor woke up the dogs.

Musician John Mayer, a part-time Bozeman resident, took to Twitter to marvel at the event.

"Wow," he wrote on Twitter. "Earthquake in Montana."