Magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattles Nevada - UPDATE: Largest in 66 years

Jay Croft and Carma Hassan
CNN
Fri, 15 May 2020 12:01 UTC

© USGS.gov

Screenshot of earthquake near Toponah, Nevada.

An earthquake with an initial magnitude of 6.4 hit Nevada on Friday morning, about 225 miles northwest of Las Vegas near the California border, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake occurred at 4:03 a.m. local time, the USGS says. It was 4.7 miles deep. At least four aftershocks were reported.It was about 35 miles west of the town of Tonopah, east of the Sierra Nevada range.

The earthquake was "widely felt," USGS spokesman Paul Laustsen told CNN."There have been almost 8,000 'Did you feel it' reports, with people logging into USGS to report it," Laustsen said.

Esmeralda County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Stritenberger felt the main earthquake and it was the biggest one he's ever experienced, he said.Deputies are checking out reported damage on US 95."North- and southbound is undriveable around mile marker 89," Stritenberger said. "According to people who called it in, it's buckled really bad."

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Update: On 16 May CNN reports:

An earthquake with a revised magnitude of 6.5 hit a remote area of Nevada on Friday morning, about 225 miles northwest of Las Vegas and near the California border, the US Geological Survey says.

The quake, which was 4.7 miles deep, occurred at 4:03 a.m. local time, the USGS says.The revised ranking makes the quake the first large one since 1954, said Graham Kent, director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

"As the third most seismic state in the nation, we kind of had a streak of not having big earthquakes for 66 years," Kent said.

"This was a magnitude 6.5, and it was certainly felt in the Reno-Tahoe area, and also throughout the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys in California," Kent said.

The USGS said in its aftershock forecast that there will be between 63 and 260 aftershocks with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater over the next seven days.