This is a list of earthquakes that have occurred in or near the US state of Nevada. Only earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.0 or greater will be included. Smaller quakes will not be listed unless they have caused damage, death or injury.
Date | Location | Magnitude | Fatalities | Notes | Article | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
September 3, 1857 | Truckee | 6.0 ML | Minor damage to a courthouse in Nevada City. | [1] | ||
March 15, 1860 | Reno | 6.5 ML | Rockslides were reported between Pyramid Lake and Carson City. | [2] | ||
May 30, 1868 | Virginia City | 6.0 ML | Plaster was knocked off almost every brick building in Virginia City. Hot water at Steamboat Springs turned into mud. | [3] | ||
December 27, 1869 | Virginia City | 6.4 ML | Severe damage to masonry walls of buildings in Virginia City and Washoe City. Damage also reported in Spring Gulch and Mokelumne Hill. | [4] | ||
December 27, 1869 | Carson City | 6.2 ML | Damage in Carson City, Dayton, Genoa, Steamboat and Virginia City. | [5] | ||
March 23, 1872 | Augusta Mountains | 5.5 Mfa | Plasters fell off a courthouse in Austin. | [6] | ||
March 26, 1872 | Owens Valley | 7.8–7.9 Mw | 27 | 1872 Owens Valley earthquake | [7] | |
December 11, 1872 | Big Smokey Valley | 6.0 ML | [8] | |||
June 3, 1887 | Carson City | 6.5 Mw | Suspected uplift at Deadman's Ranch. Homes shifted off their foundations in Genoa. Damage to brick walls and plasters in Reno, Virginia City, and parts of California. | [9] | ||
February 18, 1914 | Reno | 6.0 Mfa | Large cracks to structures in Reno. Some fires broke out. [10] Foreshock of the April earthquake. | 1914 Reno earthquakes | [11] | |
April 24, 1914 | Reno | 6.4 Mfa | Several people fainted. Major damage. [10] | 1914 Reno earthquakes | [12] | |
October 2, 1915 | Tobin Range | 6.8 Mw 7.6 Ms | Limited damage. | 1915 Pleasant Valley earthquake | [13] [14] | |
December 21, 1932 | Cedar Mountain | 6.8 Mw 7.2 M | Limited damage. | 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake | [15] [16] | |
June 25, 1933 | Buckskin Range | 6.1 Ms | [17] | |||
January 30, 1934 | Excelsior Mountains | 6.5 Ms | [18] | |||
March 12, 1934 | Great Salt Lake | 6.6 Mw | 2 | 1934 Hansel Valley earthquake | [19] | |
July 6, 1954 | Fallon | 6.8 ML | Several sailors injured at a nearby Naval Auxiliary Air Station. | 1954 Fallon earthquake | [20] | |
July 6, 1954 | Fallon | 6.2 Mw | Aftershock. | [21] | ||
August 24, 1954 | Stillwater | 6.6 Mw | Earthquake sequence. This earthquake damaged nearby dams, irrigation facilities, roads and buildings. | 1954 Stillwater earthquake | [22] | |
December 16, 1954 | Fairview Peak | 7.3 Mw | Largest mainshock. Produced large surface ruptures. Triggered numerous landslides, rockfall and mudflows. Damage to towns was limited to cracks and chimneys toppling. | 1954 Fairview earthquake | [23] | |
December 16, 1954 | Dixie Valley | 6.9 Mw | Large surface ruptures produced. Limited damage. Aftershock of the 7.3 quake. | [24] | ||
March 23, 1959 | Dixie Valley | 6.0 Mw | Aftershock. | [25] | ||
June 29, 1992 | Nevada Test Site | 5.4 Ms | Department of Energy buildings at the Nevada Test Site sustained considerable damage. | [26] [27] | ||
September 2, 1992 | St. George | 5.9 Mw | A large landslide destroyed three homes and partially buried State Route 9. | 1992 St. George earthquake | [28] | |
February 21, 2008 | Wells | 5.9–6.0 Mw | Three injured and at least 20 buildings seriously damaged. An additional 700 buildings had minor damage. | 2008 Wells earthquake | [29] | |
April 26, 2008 | Reno | 5.1 ML | Minor damage in Reno. | 2008 Reno earthquakes | [30] | |
July 4, 2019 | Ridgecrest | 6.4 Mw | 1 | Twenty people injured and many houses damaged. One person killed in Pahrump when he was pinned under a jeep he was working on. [31] Foreshock to the 7.1 quake the next day. | [32] | |
July 5, 2019 | Ridgecrest | 7.1 Mw | Five people injured and 3,000 left without power. Gas leaks and fires broke out in Ridgecrest and Trona. [33] | 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes | [34] | |
May 21, 2020 | Monte Cristo Range | 6.5 Mw | 2020 Nevada earthquake | [36] | ||
Tonopah is an unincorporated town in, and the county seat of, Nye County, Nevada, United States. Nicknamed the Queen of the Silver Camps for its mining-rich history, it is now primarily a tourism-based resort city, notable for attractions like the Mizpah Hotel and the Clown Motel.
Earthquakes are caused by movements within the Earth's crust and uppermost mantle. They range from weak events detectable only by seismometers, to sudden and violent events lasting many minutes which have caused some of the greatest disasters in human history. Below, earthquakes are listed by period, region or country, year, magnitude, cost, fatalities and number of scientific studies.
The 1992 Landers earthquake occurred on Sunday, June 28 with an epicenter near the town of Landers, California, in San Bernardino County. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
The Reno earthquakes of 2008, also known as the "Mogul-Somersett earthquake sequence", occurred in or near the western Reno, Nevada, suburbs of Mogul and Somersett. The earthquake swarm began in February 2008, but the first significant quake of the series occurred on April 15, 2008, registering a 3.6 magnitude. On April 24, 2008, two quakes in the same area registered 4.1 and 4.2. On April 25, 2008, the quake of largest magnitude occurred, registering 4.7 on the Richter scale and causing damage in the immediate area around the epicenter, including destroying 200 feet (61 m) of a wooden flume supplying water from the Highland Ditch, also known as the Highland Ditch flume. The flume carried up to 50 million US gallons (190,000 m3) a day from the Highland Ditch to Reno's Chalk Bluff Water Treatment Facility and another 5 million US gallons (19,000 m3) to area irrigation users.
Searles Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California.
The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) is a collaboration of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and regional, state, and academic partners that collects and analyzes data on significant earthquakes to provide near real-time information to emergency responders and officials, the news media, and the public. Such information is used to anticipate the likely severity and extent of damage, and to guide decisions on the responses needed.
The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes of July 4 and 5 occurred north and northeast of the town of Ridgecrest, California located in Kern County and west of Searles Valley. They included three initial main shocks of Mw magnitudes 6.4, 5.4, and 7.1, and many perceptible aftershocks, mainly within the area of the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. Eleven months later, a Mw 5.5 aftershock took place to the east of Ridgecrest. The first main shock occurred on Thursday, July 4 at 10:33 a.m. PDT, approximately 18 km (11.2 mi) ENE of Ridgecrest, and 13 km (8.1 mi) WSW of Trona, on a previously unnoticed NE-SW trending fault where it intersects the NW-SE trending Little Lake Fault Zone. This quake was preceded by several smaller earthquakes, and was followed by more than 1,400 detected aftershocks. The M 5.4 and M 7.1 quakes struck on Friday, July 5 at 4:08 a.m. and 8:19 p.m. PDT approximately 10 km (6 miles) to the northwest. The latter, now considered the mainshock, was the most powerful earthquake to occur in the state in 20 years. Subsequent aftershocks extended approximately 50 km (~30 miles) along the Little Lake Fault Zone.
On May 15, 2020 at 4:03:27 local time, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck ~35 miles (56 km) west of Tonopah, Nevada in the Monte Cristo Range near the California-Nevada border. It was Nevada's largest earthquake in 66 years.
At 7:09 AM MDT on March 18, 2020, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, with an epicenter 6 km (3.7 mi) north-northeast of Magna, Utah, beneath the site of the planned Utah Inland Port. It was the first major earthquake to occur within the Salt Lake Valley since the city was founded, the state's strongest earthquake since the 1992 St. George earthquake, and the first earthquake of comparable magnitude to occur near Salt Lake City since 1962, when a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck a similar location in Magna.
The 2020 Central Idaho earthquake occurred in the western United States on March 31, 2020, at 5:52 PM MDT, near Ruffneck Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho, 72 miles (116 km) northeast of Boise and 19 miles (31 km) northwest of Stanley. It had a magnitude of 6.5 and was felt with a maximum intensity of VIII.
In 1954, the state of Nevada was struck by a series of earthquakes that began with three magnitude 6.0+ events in July and August that preceded the Mw 7.1–7.3 mainshock and M 6.9 aftershock, both on December 12. All five earthquakes are among the largest in the state, and the largest since the Cedar Mountain earthquake of 1932 and Pleasant Valley event in 1915. The earthquake was felt throughout much of the western United States.
The Cedar Mountain earthquake of 1932 was one of the largest seismic events in the US state of Nevada. The Ms 7.3 earthquake struck at Cedar Mountain in Western Nevada. Shaking was felt as far as Oregon, Southern California, and the Rocky Mountains area. Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the United States due to ongoing rifting occurring within the North American Plate. Extension or thinning of the crust has resulted in numerous faults accommodating strain, at the same time, producing earthquakes. Since the earthquake occurred in a remote part of the state, damage was limited and no deaths were reported.
The 2013 Craig, Alaska earthquake struck on January 5, at 12:58 am (UTC–7) near the city of Craig and Hydaburg, on Prince of Wales Island. The Mw 7.5 earthquake came nearly three months after an Mw 7.8 quake struck Haida Gwaii on October 28, in 2012. The quake prompted a regional tsunami warning to British Columbia and Alaska, but it was later cancelled. Due to the remote location of the quake, there were no reports of casualties or damage.
The 1914 Reno earthquakes were a series of earthquakes in February and April 1914 in Reno, Nevada, and the surrounding area. The 6.0 magnitude foreshock occurred on February 18, 1914, at 10:17 am local time. The 6.4 magnitude main quake occurred at 12:34 am local time. This event stands as a pivotal moment in the quivering history of the United States, leaving an indelible mark on the city of Reno, contributing significantly to the understanding of seismic activity in the region.
The 2021 Kermadec Islands earthquakes were a series of earthquakes with magnitudes of 8.1 and 7.4 that occurred at 19:28:31 UTC on 4 March 2021. The epicentres were located southeast of Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands, part of the New Zealand outlying islands. The main magnitude 8.1 earthquake was preceded by a magnitude 7.4 foreshock and followed by a magnitude 6.1 aftershock. A separate, unrelated magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand, approximately 900 km to the south, several hours before the main quakes. More than a dozen aftershocks exceeded magnitude 6.
On March 3, 2021, 12:16:09 the 2021 Larissa earthquake had a magnitude of 6.3 Mw with an intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli Scale 9 kilometers west of Týrnavos, Greece. One person was confirmed dead with eleven other people injured. Light shaking was also felt as far as Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro.