Well over 125 earthquakes in last 24 hours in this small area. Last few within the previous 20 minutes.
What's the significance of Yucca Mtn? I'm thinking hard here and coming up blank. ...just curious. Thanks :-)
Earthquake swarm shakes remote area along eastern Sierra
http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/nation/story/1665488p-9413344c.html
The Associated Press
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) - A swarm of earthquakes - one a magnitude-5.5 - jolted a remote, sparsely populated area along the eastern Sierra Nevada on Saturday, authorities said.
A Mono County sheriff's dispatcher said there were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage from the temblors centered along the California-Nevada line about 30 miles northeast of Mammoth Lakes.
David Oppenheimer, a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, said most of the 70 quakes in the sequence that began 12:02 a.m. Saturday were magnitude-2 or less.
The magnitude-5.5 temblor that struck at 4:02 p.m. was followed by a magnitude-5.4 quake at 4:43 p.m., he said. The moderate quakes were the biggest in the swarm and the biggest on the fault in more than a decade.
"It's been quite a robust sequence," Oppenheimer said. "It's not clear how it'll play out. There could be more magnitude-5s or it could die off in an hour or two."
Some of the quakes were felt 35 miles away in Hawthorne, Nev.
"They (quakes) just felt like a hit and a rolling sensation," said Mineral County sheriff's dispatcher Lorraine Haight. "Of course, it's scary when you don't expect it."
Dennis Bauer of Lake Forest, Calif., was inside a small Mono Lake information center near Lee Vining when one of the temblors shook.
"It was like someone was leaning on the building and pushing it back and forth," he said.
The eastern Sierra has been a seismically active area. A similar sequence was centered in the same area over a one-week period in 1980, Oppenheimer said. The activity died down in 1984 before picking up again in 1992.
"For whatever reasons this fault seems to make a lot of noise," Oppenheimer said. "It pops off every once in a while."
The Great Basin that covers most of Nevada and Utah is pulling part, causing the quakes, he said.
Nobody worry. It was probably my ex passing out in a drunken stupor and hitting the pavement...AGAIN!
I seem to remember wondering in the 80's if Mammoth would ever blow up.
See also more-or-less live thread from an affected user:
5.5 quake at Mammoth Lakes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220114/posts
Is over 200 miles away close?
Answer? The three weeks prior and following a change in seasons.