A 5.7 magnitude earthquake in the western corner of the Walker River Reservation struck near Yerington today.
According to the University of Nevada, Reno's Seismological Lab, this area in central Nevada has had a lot of earthquakes in the last century. It's been experiencing small clusters of smaller earthquakes in the past couple of weeks.
Since the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that happened at approximately 3:08 p.m. there have been several aftershocks ranging from magnitude 2.5 to 3.3 that people may have also felt.
"Nevada is the third most seismically active place in the U.S.," said Professor Christie Rowe, the Director at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory. "We have faults all the way across the state, which my college said the other night no one is safe from earthquakes in Nevada. Those faults are acting to spread the state apart so we actually get a little bit bigger every year through these earthquakes."
She says this one moved the North American Plate a little bit South relative to the Pacific Ocean.
Professor Rowe tells us there will continue to be aftershocks tonight, tomorrow and into the next couple of weeks.
Their field team is going out to deploy some of their monitoring systems to keep an eye on things.
"It is not impossible that some earthquakes can happen now that are bigger than the 5.5, so that's what we want to be out on the lookout for," said Professor Rowe. "There is a greater risk for earthquakes right after you have a moderate one like this one."
She also says around a 5.5 magnitude earthquake is big enough to cause damage. You'll want to make sure in a circumstance like this you have a sturdy surface to hide underneath.
"We've actually been in a quiet period for the last 50 to 70 years," she said. "Nevada is a very seismically active state that does have very large earthquakes. The bigger earthquakes like 7.0 happened in 1954 in central Nevada so that's the kind of thing we know will happen again."
Professor Rowe also says we have a fault line that goes through Mt. Rose, and if we were to experience a magnitude 6 earthquake it could be damaging to the point of rock falls or even a split highway.
"In Reno we have big fault lines that run right through the city and Mt Rose fault is one of the faults we keep a close eye on," she said. "There's also big faults in the Lake Tahoe area. We feel a lot of earthquakes from them. They're certainly capable of generating earthquakes in the 6 to 7 range and that's what we're trying prepare for and be ready for."
She also says 1954 is the last time we saw a 7 point earthquake in Central Nevada close to the same location as today.
Professor Rowe adds that we typically see a 5 point magnitude earthquake once a year and bigger ones every 10 years.
