(Photos courtesy: Esmeralda County Sheriff's Office)
The Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno reports a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck about 36 miles west of Tonopah at 4:03 a.m. on Friday.
The Esmeralda County Sheriff's Office reports some damage at mile maker 89 in Esmeralda County. The Sheriff’s Office, Nevada Highway Patrol and Nevada Department of Transportation are on the scene. The Sheriff’s Office said several areas of the highway have damage caused from the magnitude 6.5 earthquake.
The Mineral County Sheriff’s Office reports no damage in the small towns of Luning and Mina, which are near the major earthquake’s epicenter at Coaldale. The two towns are south of Hawthorne on U.S. Highway 95.
UNR says the temblor occurred about three miles below the surface in a remote area. Within the first hour following the earthquake, more than 8,000 people reported feeling it.
Nye County has reported some minor damage, including storefront broken glass and buckled sidewalks. Nye County says that county and town infrastructure appears to not be damaged at this time.
Nye County also says that Gabbs, 75 miles north of Tonopah, reported no significant structure damage.
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The earthquake was felt throughout Nevada, central California and southern Utah. UNR says the quake was felt with light to moderate shaking as far away as Reno and Las Vegas; as well as Fresno and Sacramento in California; and with very weak shaking in the Bay Area. The maximum felt shaking intensity reported by USGS’s “Did You Feel It?” was strong.
Six aftershocks larger than magnitude 4.5 occurred in the hour following the mainshock, the largest being a magnitude 5.1 approximately 23 minutes after the mainshock. Seismologists said the aftershocks could continue. Initial aftershock forecasts estimate that there is about a 4% chance of an aftershock larger than magnitude 6.5 in the week following this event.
An employee at the Super 7 Gas and Mini Mart in Tonopah tells 2 News that he felt the quake while he was working. "Before we knew it, we were standing there and everything was just shaking back and forth, back and forth. We had a couple of things fall off the shelf," says Keith Hasty.
UNR says Friday's earthquake is the largest in the region since a 1934 magnitude 6.5 earthquake approximately 24 miles to the northwest and a 1932 magnitude 6.8 earthquake approximately 30 miles to the north. The area experienced a magnitude 5.1 earthquake in 2013. About two dozen earthquakes in the magnitude 5 range have occurred within 65 miles of this event over the past 50 years, mostly to the west and south.
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(UNR contributed to this report.)
