Posted on 04/26/2008 12:09:21 AM PDT by skippermd
Just happening now.
Version #1: This report supersedes any earlier reports of this event. This is a computer-generated message. This event has not yet been reviewed by a seismologist.
A light earthquake occurred at 11:39:59 PM (PDT) on Friday, April 25, 2008. The magnitude 4.9 event occurred 2 km (1 miles) NNW of Verdi-Mogul, NV. The hypocentral depth is 0 km (0.0 miles).
Magnitude 4.9 - local magnitude (ML) Time Friday, April 25, 2008 at 11:39:59 PM (PDT) Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 6:39:59 (UTC) Distance from Verdi-Mogul, NV - 2 km (1 miles) NNW (340 degrees) Reno, NV - 12 km (8 miles) W (271 degrees) Cold Springs, NV - 16 km (10 miles) S (179 degrees) Sun Valley, NV - 18 km (11 miles) WSW (245 degrees) Sacramento, CA - 169 km (105 miles) NE (50 degrees) Coordinates 39 deg. 31.7 min. N (39.529N), 119 deg. 57.8 min. W (119.964W) Depth 0 km (0.0 miles) Location Quality unknown Location Quality Parameters Nst= 46, Nph= 46, Dmin=0 km, Rmss=0 sec, Erho=0 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=0 degrees Event ID# nn00242527
Uh oh. This is an even bigger one. The swarm continues to intensify.
Note time in title is 11:39:59 PM
3.0 quake at 11:43:50 PM
MAP 3.0 2008/04/25 23:43:50 39.530N 119.912W 4.0 4 km ( 3 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV
UPDATE:
No major damage reported as of yet. Reports from local newscast mostly from guests in hotels downtown of elevator failure, falling objects, etc.
Just what I was thinking. I’m about a hundred miles away, and in the least seismically active part of California, but it’s still worrisome.
I’m curious about the potential stresses on other faults.
Just things settling down after the quake in the midwest with the Madrid fault. IMHO.
They are intensifying
Now reports of flooding near cliffview drive in Mogul,NV area west of Reno caused by falling boulders damaging water levy (description unclear, possibly a dam?).
Just got another little one as I was typing this.
ping
Is Lex Luthor involved?
edit: Now video of flooding from damaged wooden water flume which flanks hill behind Bliss court, Mogul NV. Damage assumed to be caused by falling boulders.
Skippermd, please keep everyone up to date as the shaking continues and please stay safe.
Earthquake Ping List. If you would like to have your name
added to this list or removed from it, please FReepmail me.
I think it’s Earthquake McGoon.
Thanks for the ping, Lainie. Check out the long list of Nevada quakes.
I bet with all that shaking you could get a lot of free games of pinball during an earthquake.
While these are small quakes, they are also very shallow. The shaking will be more widely felt and there will be more damage than if the quakes were occurring at greater depths.
This swarm started long before the Illinois quake, and doesn't have the slightest relation to it.
http://www.hotspringsenthusiast.com/Nevada.asp
Just wondering.
I would think Nevada would have very sandy or grainy soil instead of a dense firm clay/silt soil like areas east of the Mississippi, which would make these shallow earthquakes even more powerful.
In any case we better get Tommy Lee Jones on it right away.
They’re strike-slip quakes and not volcanic.
Fault they’re on hasn’t been previously known, though. Reno area is riddled with faults capable of generating low M7 quakes.
This was from an article this afternoon, before the large quakes overnight:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080425-1527-nv-renoearthquake.html
“The persistence of this particular earthquake sequence slightly increases the probability for a significant earthquake in west Reno,” said a statement issued by the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.
“If the pattern continues we may be looking at a larger event” in the Reno area, Smith said Friday. “We wouldn’t be surprised to see it (swarm) end at any time and it also wouldn’t be surprising to see a large earthquake. The bottom line is we don’t know what will happen.”
Probably illegal Mexicans digging a really big tunnel.
Gee, I believe that this is what 99 out of 100 people would say.
Hard to tell swarms from foreshock swarms.
I actually spent a bit of time today trying to read the literature on telling them apart. There was a very similar swarm in Idaho a few years back (less populated area) that didn’t end in a large quake.
Regarding this particular swarm - I have a feeling this doesn’t end well (now watch the 4.7 tonight end up being the largest - all predictions about quakes end up leaving egg on faces.)
bookmark
Swarm has been active since late February..
You might be joking around but that statement is about as significant a statement as any one should expect from USGS.
As of yet, there is no method available to predict earthquakes with pinpoint accuracy.
All the faults are not completely mapped out as witnessed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A previously unknown fault running approximately 15 miles Southeast of the Northridge epicenter caused more extensive damage to one small area of the San Fernando Valley than the tremor from the original quake would have alone.
Thanks Strat. That's very interesting.
It's a water floom that feeds a water treatment plant. About 100-200 feet were knocked out by falling rocks. No damage to home in the area.
USGS seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones once quipped that about the only way to determine that a quake was a foreshock of an imminent and larger event was by looking back in time and saying "Oh. Yes. That one was a foreshock."
Fortunately, that's often the way these events turn out.Strategerist wrote: "Regarding this particular swarm - I have a feeling this doesn't end well..."
Agree, and other than the long list, there's nothing really concrete to point to which could account for my feeling that something's up.Strategerist wrote: "... (now watch the 4.7 tonight end up being the largest - all predictions about quakes end up leaving egg on faces.)..."
From your mouth to God's Ears, I pray that nothing else happens.
I called volcano first! If It is a volcano they have to name it after me.
Mt. Saint Redneck!
Not funny, Messersch*t.
The terrain looks nearly identical to the Silverton caldera to me.
No caldera near Reno; lots of of faults, though.
That shaker last night woke me up. I was either asleep or almost asleep and then the bed shook. Took me all of three minutes to go back to sleep.
Tell your son to keep an eye out for the NHP & CHP. Everybody is moaning about budget cuts.
No sense of humor, T?
ME, it would ruin the landscape. I like looking at the trees.
Some great info on the Nevada seismic lab website;
There have been two Magnitude 6 quakes near Verdi in the last 100 years.
One in 1914, other in 1948. Here’s info on the Mag 6; sounds ominously similar to what is going on now; seems like if there’s a long pause, that could be the sign a mainshock is coming:
http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/papers/renoeq/renoeq.html
Verdi Earthquake, December 29, 1948, M6.0
On December 29, 1948, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake near Verdi caused Intensity VII damage to that community. The main event was preceded by several foreshocks. On December 27, notable foreshocks occurred at 5:15, 6:24, 8:21, 8:24, 9:24, and 10:04 p.m. (PST). The event at 9:24 p.m. is described as “a prolonged jolt beneath the city [Reno] for perhaps 30 seconds.” On December 28, numerous earthquakes were felt, and at Verdi there were almost continuous vibrations. Following a lull of nearly 36 hours, almost everyone in a radius of 80 km (50 mi) was awakened by the mainshock at 5:53 AM on December 29th. Nearly every building in Verdi had some sort of damage. Brick parapets on the east and west sides of the Verdi school building were sheared and thrown off. A wall of a grocery store fell down. Several chimneys came down in Verdi and Floriston, and bricks fell from many others. A chimney was also broken in Dog Valley. Windows were broken as far away as Reno. A water main between Reno and Sparks was sheared. In Verdi, stoves were knocked out of line and in some cases went sliding into walls. Large boulders up to 1.5 m (5 ft) came down in the Truckee River Canyon along U.S. Highway 40 south of Verdi, knocking out both power and telephone lines. Telephone service in Reno was out for one to two days.
The earthquake is thought to have originated in Dog Valley and to have possibly occurred along the Verdi fault (which is northerly striking as is the orientation of the most severe damage) or the Dog Valley lineament. In addition to foreshocks, “mysterious rumbles” or subterranean roars were heard in the Verdi-Reno region for about a year before the Verdi earthquake (Bell et al., 1982). [MSL 6, MBM 6.0]
No.
LOL
4.9 is just under the 5.0 minimum that is worthy of a thread. However, since nothing else is happening in the world the high posting standards of FR can be relaxed slightly.
That's not normal!
:-)
Was revised to a 4.7; however, it’s in a medium-sized urban area, and is part of a MASSIVE swarm of quakes that has lasted two months.
And as I noted, it seems a similar swarm in the same place in 1948 included a Magnitude 6.0 earthquake; such a quake, while not an epic disaster, would cause fatalities and damage potentially topping a billion dollars.
Have you experienced a 6.0 quake personally? I have, (6.1 actually) and while it knocked me to my butt (I was in the shower at the time), it was hardly life-threatening.
A 6.0 causes damage to buildings that are made of unreinforced concrete, and it knocks stuff off the shelves of supermarkets.
Magnitude isn’t the relevant question; it’s the intensity that matters for the purposes of that discussion. A Magnitude 6 would do a lot more in some places than others.
It’s interesting how seismically dead it has been historically at the epicenter. Has it been confirmed this is an extension of the Dog Valley lineament (seems very possible/likely), or could it be related to one of the smaller dip-slip faults mapped near Reno?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.