“We don’t even get up for 3.0’s here in Nevada.”
Ya think so? Read this! Lot’s of seismic activity going on up in the NWern corner of NV just north of the Black Rock Desert.
Update: Nevada earthquake cluster brings more quakes today
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/11/11/scientists-nevada-earthquake-cluster-biggest-decade/18889345/
November 12, 2014
Update: 10:25 a.m: The earthquake cluster occurring in northwest Nevada near the Oregon line is continuing, with 10 more quakes occurring so far on Wednesday. Four of the quakes were at magnitude 3 or above, with the largest measured at 4.1.
Stay with the RGJ as this story develops.
Original post: Scientists in Reno and across the West are keeping a close eye on an earthquake cluster shaking a remote area where Nevada meets Oregon and California, acknowledging the series of temblors that continued Tuesday could be the precursor of a larger earthquake to come.
There is, of course, no way to know for sure.
“This is kind of the gold medal of swarms over the last decade,” said Graham Kent, director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.
Already, Kent said, this latest swarm has surpassed a previous Nevada earthquake swarm that shook the Mogul area west of Reno in 2008, another that hit Spanish Springs last year and a third that impacted the Hawthorne area in 2011.
Since mid-July, more than 500 earthquakes of magnitude 2 or greater have hit an area located west of Nevada’s Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge about 40 miles northeast of Cedarville, Calif., and 40 miles southeast of Lakeview, Ore. The swarm increased in intensity last week, with the strongest quake of magnitude 4.7 hitting Nov. 5. Quakes have continued this week, with several exceeding magnitude 3.
“It’s certainly more vigorous than the Mogul swarm,” Kent said, adding that should a quake of magnitude 6 or greater occur, towns like Cedarville and Lakeview could be significantly affected.
Kent and colleagues see some parallels to this cluster and the one that rattled nerves of residents in the Mogul-Somersett area over two months in 2008. That swarm consisted of an “increasingly vigorous” set of quakes, causing moderate local damage, that culminated with a magnitude 5 event.
Kent noted that for the last 60 years or so, Nevada – one of the nation’s three most seismically active states – has been relatively quiet when it comes to earthquakes. Other periods farther back in history have produced more quakes, some of them strong, including in the Reno area.