MCIN
A series of earthquakes has struck the Hawthorne area once again that started with a cluster on Friday, Aug. 23, the strongest a 4.3 just after 8:30 a.m. There were no reports of any damage, but plenty of residents reported feeling the shaking on social media.
Magnitude 3.3 and 3.0 earthquakes were recorded just hours before the larger tremor on Friday morning. More than 20 aftershocks followed as well that day, most in the one to two range, including a 3.3 at 9:15 p.m.
All in all, 52 earthquakes in varying sizes rattled the area from Friday morning to Monday night according to the University of Nevada Seismological Lab. The shaking all occurred about 10 miles northeast of Hawthorne near Walker Lake.
Local residents are no stranger to these types of swarms. In 2011, thousands of earthquakes shook the area from March to August, the largest being a magnitude 4.8.
On December 28, 2016, three magnitude 5.5 to 5.7 earthquakes struck about 18 miles southwest of Hawthorne just after midnight. Strong shaking was reported in the Hawthorne and Bridgeport area and the earthquake was felt as far away as San Francisco, Reno, Las Vegas and throughout California’s Central Valley.
Seismologists have said that swarms like these don’t typically mean that it’s a prelude to a bigger event, however there is really no way to predict when a bigger earthquake might happen.
If you’d like to follow along and track the seismic activity in Nevada, visit the University of Nevada Seismological Lab online at seismo.unr.edu and click on the earthquake info tab.
