Earthquakes in northern Nevada

from my son's email on friday morning about what's been happening in reno...

[We] had two (4 total, only felt 2) fairly big quakes yesterday 4.2 & 3.8, rocked the hospital at about 3:45 and 3:55. There was another about 6 pm and 1 am this morning but I didn’t feel those. If you go on to the USGS web site, you will have to do some poking around but you can see that we actually have been having up to as many as 50 small quakes a day in the area for the past couple of weeks. Those were the first quakes [my wife] and I had been in so they were both fun and scary at the same time.

this greeted me this morning on yahoo news...

Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada's largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.

More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.2 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.

Seismologists said the recent activity is unusual because the quakes started out small and continue to build in strength. The normal pattern is for a main quake followed by smaller aftershocks.

"A magnitude 6 quake wouldn't be a scientific surprise," John Anderson, director of the seismological lab, said Saturday. "We certainly hope residents are taking the threat seriously after last night."

here's the usgs earthquake chart for the past 2 1/2 hours, all of them in the reno area...

MAP 3.1 2008/04/26 20:56:00 38.538N 117.217W 0.0 52 km (32 mi) N of Tonopah, NV
map 0.7 2008/04/26 20:46:43 39.550N 119.939W 4.0 4 km ( 3 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
map 1.7 2008/04/26 20:43:07 37.781N 122.199W 9.5 3 km ( 2 mi) ESE of Oakland, CA
map 1.5 2008/04/26 20:37:26 37.568N 118.867W 8.4 12 km ( 8 mi) SE of Mammoth Lakes, CA
map 1.0 2008/04/26 20:36:56 38.848N 122.773W 1.4 5 km ( 3 mi) WNW of Cobb, CA
map 1.4 2008/04/26 20:36:46 39.530N 119.886W 8.0 6 km ( 3 mi) W of Reno, NV
map 0.7 2008/04/26 20:33:51 39.509N 119.938W 0.0 2 km ( 1 mi) ESE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
map 0.8 2008/04/26 20:18:57 39.491N 119.859W 0.0 5 km ( 3 mi) SW of Reno, NV
map 0.7 2008/04/26 19:55:35 39.530N 119.886W 0.0 6 km ( 3 mi) W of Reno, NV
map 1.4 2008/04/26 19:36:25 32.637N 116.040W 10.5 12 km ( 7 mi) SSW of Ocotillo, CA
map 1.7 2008/04/26 19:35:04 39.551N 119.835W 8.0 3 km ( 2 mi) NNW of Reno, NV
map 1.1 2008/04/26 19:27:51 39.510N 119.886W 0.0 6 km ( 4 mi) WSW of Reno, NV
map 1.0 2008/04/26 19:09:04 39.510N 119.912W 4.0 4 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV
map 0.6 2008/04/26 19:06:24 39.550N 119.939W 0.0 4 km ( 3 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
map 0.5 2008/04/26 18:47:10 39.510N 119.886W 0.0 6 km ( 4 mi) WSW of Reno, NV
MAP 3.0 2008/04/26 18:37:55 39.901N 115.707W 16.0 48 km (30 mi) NNE of Eureka, NV

it was only a little less than two months ago that the 6.0 quake hit wells in northeastern nevada...

The quakes around Reno began a week after a magnitude 6 temblor in the northern Nevada town of Wells, near the Utah border.

"around reno" is a relative term, given that wells is nearly 400 miles away...

ah, well... something to look forward to when i get back there in early june...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet