Nevada earthquake shakes region on Monday; updated USGS estimate to 5.5

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

An earthquake struck western Nevada on Monday afternoon. UNR’s Nevada Seismological Laboratory reported a magnitude estimate of 5.5, revised down from preliminary estimates as high as 5.8.

The quake occurred at 3:08 p.m. 15.5 miles north-northeast of the town of Yerington. Within 30 minutes, more than 7,700 people said on the US Geological Survey website that they had felt the earthquake.

The red dot over Yerington on the map shows the location of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake on December 9, 2024.

Ten aftershocks shook the same area before 4 p.m., with magnitudes ranging from 2.5 to 3.3.

The depth of the first quake was reportedly relatively shallow at 8.4 kilometers below the Earth’s surface. Any quake less than 70 kilometers deep is considered shallow by USGS standards.

Shaken for 10 seconds but no damage reported

Scott Draper was parked at a gas station in Yerington when it felt like someone was rocking his car back and forth.

Draper quickly realized it was an earthquake, and one large enough to be felt.

“I didn’t feel the little ones we had all week, but I felt this one,” he said. “Finally, I thought, one big enough even I could feel.”

He said the shaking lasted about 10 seconds.

Draper, who grew up in Yerington, is a firefighter and said he had never heard of any emergencies or damage related to the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday at 3:08 p.m.

What causes earthquakes?

The Earth’s crust is made up of a series of tectonic plates that are in constant motion. When there are sudden movements between these plates, earthquakes can occur. The places where these large plates meet can cause major earthquakes, including the West Coast where the North American plate and the Pacific plate meet.

But strong earthquakes can also occur in fault zones within the plate, sometimes far from where tectonic plates meet.

“We are not on a plate boundary here in Nevada,” Bogolub, a seismologist with the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, told the RGJ in February. “But what we have are active faults – kind of a fancy word for ‘a crack in the rock’.”

“When rock moves against other rock, earthquakes occur. We call it a stick-slip movement. If a lot of pressure builds up on two sides of a fault, it will stick together due to friction.” . But when that pressure is high enough to overcome the friction, this type of rupture occurs, and that is the earthquake.”

From February:Why the California side of Tahoe gets earthquake warnings – and the Nevada side doesn’t

Are we facing a major earthquake in Reno?

In Reno’s early days, major earthquakes were common. In a 55-year period from 1860 to 1914, seven quakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater occurred in Reno, Virginia City, and Carson City. An earthquake on December 10, 1900 caused Steamboat Springs’ hot springs and geysers to dry up.

East of Reno, Churchill County suffered six earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater in five years in the 1950s; The aftermath of a powerful magnitude 7.2 quake in December 1954 is still visible in the landscape near Fallon nearly 70 years later.

But in more than six decades, northwestern Nevada has not experienced an earthquake larger than magnitude 6.0. The Mogul-Somersett earthquake swarm in 2008 peaked at just 4.7, and the Galena earthquake swarm in 2018 peaked at just 2.7.

“That doesn’t mean we’re overdue for a big event,” Bogolub explained.

“In geological time, it’s really hard to say ‘overdue,'” she told the RGJ. “The recurrence intervals for earthquakes can be on the order of hundreds to thousands of years. It might be off by a few thousand years, but I wouldn’t say we’re overdue. I would just say that we live in an earthquake zone and a large magnitude earthquake could occur.

Have you received a USGS ShakeAlert alert?

While seismologists remain unable to predict earthquakes, three earthquake-prone states on the West Coast – namely California, Oregon and Washington – are participating in the US Geological Survey’s ShakeAlert system.

But even though Nevada is not yet fully involved in the system, several Northern Nevada residents received alerts on smartphones when the quake struck. The warning message read: “Emergency Alert – Earthquake Detected! Put it down, cover it, hold it tight. Protect yourself. -USGS ShakeAlert.” The message was accompanied by a loud emergency notification tone.

The ShakeAlert system detects early signs of earthquakes and can warn when a quake is just seconds away. Residents will receive text messages to get to safety immediately, and institutions such as transportation systems, hospitals and first responder stations could take immediate action to reduce the earthquake’s immediate impact.

Nevada-based monitoring stations contribute to the forecasts, but Nevada does not have its own warning system.

“California has earthquake early warning, but Nevada does not,” Bogolub said. “It’s a little unfortunate because if there was a big earthquake – in Tahoe, for example – people on the California side of the border would get a warning, but people in Nevada wouldn’t. This is a big thing that we really want.” Address soon.

For a statewide system to be implemented, seismologists must identify locations to expand the state’s network of monitoring stations. However, it remains to be seen how the infrastructure will be financed. Bogolub said she hopes to receive state and federal funding to implement the program.

Shaken for 10 seconds but no damage reported

Related Posts

The Rangers are likely sitting on Jacob Trouba at the end of his tenure in New York

Hunter Biden tax case judge calls presidential pardon an attempt to ‘rewrite history’

peligro en estas zonas de España por vientos huracanados

Leave a Reply Cancel reply