More than 200 aftershocks have now occurred after a magnitude 5.7 earthquake about 17 miles southwest of Fallon at 6:29 p.m. on Monday. 

The Nevada Seismological Laboratory (NSL) recorded the temblor southeast of Lahontan Reservoir in the Dead Camel Mountains and has since been followed by at least 200 aftershocks, of which 17 were over magnitude 3 (as of 8:25 a.m. on Tuesday). The mainshock was located 12.5 miles southeast of Silver Springs and 15 miles southwest of Fallon.

NSL says it is monitoring the aftershock activity closely and will deploy “aftershock kits,” seismic stations which can be activated quickly, to increase the coverage near the mainshock location. Aftershocks will be frequent in the next few days and can continue for months. There is an elevated risk of a larger earthquake following this one.

“Earthquakes do cluster. After you've had one earthquake we see higher incidents of more earthquakes, so we will be watching for a lot of aftershocks from this event. And its certainly possible that some of the aftershocks might be bigger than the 5.5 and ends up being our foreshock.” 

NSL says there is no known fault at this location, but the earthquake epicenter was only 12 miles north of the epicenter of the region’s last big earthquake, a magnitude 5.7 which struck on in December 2024 in the northern Mason Valley near Parker Butte. Both earthquakes occurred near, but not on, previously known faults.

"That's gonna allow us to pick up a lot of that activity that comes in the next days and weeks and help us refine that fault structure, because we don't have a name for this fault," said Khristie Rowe, Professor/Director, Nevada Seismological Laboratory. "We suspected there were faults in this valley, but this one doesn't actually have a name, it's not known to science, so it's gonna be a new one we can add to the map after this event."

Lyon County Emergency Management says that initial reports indicate no significant damage or injuries from the quake, but out of caution, response crews will continue conducting comprehensive damage assessments throughout Lyon County over the next several days.

The Churchill County Sheriff’s Office similarly reports no major damage and no injuries.

People in Fallon told us the quake felt bigger than what is being reported.

"We ran out of the house, and we were all panicking and worried," said Fallon resident Samuel Wilking. "So, we were all saying to get out of the house, and we get outside, and you just see the tree shaking. My car was shaking. You know, it was like one of those few earthquakes where you just really feel the whole ground just going like this the whole time."

The best thing to do in the event of an earthquake is to get underneath a heavy table or desk. You want to protect yourself from possible falling objects. A doorway can work as well but be aware that shaking can cause the door to swing back and hit you.

After riding out the initial shakes, you should try to get outside to an open area and wait for things to settle. Every home should have an emergency escape plan that ensures that everyone in the house can get to safety, as well as a first aid kit to attend to any injuries during the event of an earthquake.

(Nevada Seismological Laboratory contributed to this report.)