RENO, Nev. March 20, 2020 – The Nevada Seismological Laboratory reports a magnitude 4.5 earthquake located near the south end of Carson City at 6:33 p.m. PDT on March 20. There have been no reports of damage. More than 6,000 people reported feeling the earthquake and posted their response on the USGS Did-You-Feel-It Website. The location of the event is Latitude: 39,1112N; Longitude: -119.7316N; with a depth of 8 km. (5 miles).
The event was felt as far away as the Sacramento Valley, Merced and Fresno. Light shaking was reported in Carson City.
“The earthquake is in an area that has experienced earthquake swarm behavior, on-and-off, for several years,” Ken Smith, seismic network manager at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, said. “There have been about two dozen ongoing small aftershocks which is expected for an event of this size.”.
Updated information for activity associated with this earthquake is available at http://www.seismo.unr.edu.
The Nevada-Eastern California border region has a history of large damaging earthquakes and citizens should always consider earthquake preparedness. Information is available at the Great Nevada Shakeout website or at www.readywashoe.com.
The Nevada Seismological Laboratory, a public safety information service department at the University of Nevada, Reno, is a member of the USGS Advanced National Seismic System (http://www.anss.org) and operates a network of about 150 real-time seismograph stations throughout the region providing earthquake information to Nevada citizens, the USGS, and local and state officials.