Many northern Nevadans got an alert about an earthquake, urging them to duck and cover just after 8 a.m. on Thursday.
The alert said a magnitude 5.9 earthquake had hit just east of Dayton, about 23 miles away from Reno. This turned out to be a false alarm.
The U.S Geological Survey says it's not a system failure, so they're looking into what exactly happened during the time of the warning.
Robert de Groot, Shake Alert operations team lead, says, "There were no major failures or breaks in the network. No one forgot to press a button or something like that. In fact, the system is completely automated, and it did what it was supposed to do."
De Groot says a false alarm like this rarely happens, so all warnings should be taken seriously.
He tells us that if there actually was a 5.9 earthquake, it would've caused some serious damage to buildings, water lines, and power in the Dayton and Carson City areas. Even people in San Francisco would've felt a slight shake in the ground.
Christie Rowe, Director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory, says if you do feel an earthquake, immediately drop to the floor, find the nearest cover, and sit still until it's over.
"50% of injuries are from falling objects or from people losing their footing during the shaking and falling. So, you can prevent those 50% of injuries by doing the drop, cover, hold when you have a warning or start to feel shaking," she said.
To sign up for earthquake warnings, you can click here for Nevada and click here for California.
