The residents of two Nevada settlements felt brief, recurrent tremors just before 11 p.m. on October 2, 1915, which turned out to be precursors of the greatest earthquake ever recorded in the Silver State.
According to Dr. Kyren R. Bogolub, network seismologist for the Nevada Seismological Laboratory in Reno, the mainshock, or largest earthquake of the day, struck the Pleasant Valley and the small gold mining community of Kennedy (now a ghost town) just before 11 p.m. with a magnitude of 7.3. The two Pershing County communities experienced some shaking during the day, but at approximately 10:55 p.m., “we were violently thrown out of bed and buffeted in all directions continuously for not less than fifteen minutes when without the slightest warning a great roar and rumbling was heard,” according to an article written by L.D. Roylance in The Silver State (Winnemucca) newspaper.
Except for the mill, every building in Kennedy was demolished, and one nearby ranch “had a crack in the ground fourteen feet wide,” according to Roylance’s account. According to Roylance, the earthquake also wrecked train depots in Fallon and Carlin and damaged the courthouse and three hotels in Winnemucca, which is about sixty miles south of the two settlements. Earthquake activity state
The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology reports that, behind Alaska and California, Nevada has the third-highest rate of seismic activity in the country. According to the bureau, since the 1850s, more than 220,000 earthquakes have been detected in and around the state, including 23 big ones with magnitudes of 6 to 7.3. Why are there so many earthquakes? “The basic explanation is that Nevada has a large number of active faults,” Bogolub stated. “Tectonics is the more complex explanation,” she stated. The Pacific tectonic plate can move along the North American tectonic plate thanks to the San Andreas Fault in California, albeit not all of the movement is supported by the fault. Nevada’s crust has stretched and minor faults have made up a large portion of it.
The basin and range structure that exists now is a product of Nevada’s long history of stretching, according to Bogolub. “There could be earthquakes along all those faults between the basins and the ranges.” Nevada is situated on the North American plate, as opposed to California, where the gigantic San Andreas Fault incorporates the motions of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. Nevertheless, according to Bogolub, Nevada has faults that can cause earthquakes with a magnitude of seven or higher. The seven strongest earthquakes in Nevada According to the bureau’s publication “Living with Earthquakes in Nevada,” the most powerful shaker in Nevada history is the 1915 Pleasant Valley earthquake, which is centered around the northwest of the state.
The following are the names, locations, and magnitudes of the state’s strongest earthquakes: Fairview Peak in 1954: 7.2 1932: 7.1 Cedar Mountain Dixie Valley: 7.1 in 1954 Stillwater, 1954: 6.7 Rainbow Mountain in 1954: 6.6 Wells: 6.0 in 2008 Minor earthquakes in Southern Nevada Southern Nevada experiences far fewer large-scale earthquakes than its northern counterpart. However, a series of subsequent earthquakes measuring 4 to 5 in magnitude have been linked to the filling of Lake Mead in the mid-1930s. This is because large reservoirs like Lake Mead’s are extremely heavy and “actually depress the Earth’s crust because of their weight,” according to the Nevada Earthquake Hazard History report on the website shakeout.org.
The shakeout.org study lists the following earthquakes that were caused by Lake Mead and occurred in Southern Nevada: two in 1939, two in 1942, one in 1947, two more in 1948, one in 1950, four in 1952, one in 1958, and two in 1963. According to the research, “there were also dozens of smaller earthquakes at Hoover Dam and in Boulder City throughout these years.” “Some of the biggest events were felt clearly in Las Vegas and caused minor damage in Boulder City.” Two of the lesser earthquakes that are usually felt in Southern Nevada were one at 2.5 miles west of Henderson on April 24, 2022, and another at 2.5 miles southwest of Las Vegas on April 24.
The U.S. Geological Survey states that a severe earthquake measuring 6.3 shook the ground 10 times more than a more moderate one measuring 5.3. This is because an increase of one point of magnitude on the Richter scale indicates a temblor 10 times more violent. According to officials with the Nye County Sheriff’s Department, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck July 4, 2019, approximately 100 miles away at Ridgecest, California, resulted in the death of a Pahrump man. That day, a tremor caused Troy Ray’s Jeep, which was elevated on jacks, to topple over him while he was working on it. Troy Ray, 55, died from traumatic asphyxia.
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