Nevada earthquake: Magnitude-6.5 temblor — and several large aftershocks — have struck near Tonopah
RENO, Nev. — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck near Tonopah, Nevada, early Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Two more aftershocks near Tonopah both measuring magnitude 5.4 struck the area a short time later.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the small town of Tonopah, located about three hours north of Las Vegas.
Part of U.S. 95 was closed as state troopers and sheriff’s deputies from Esmeralda and Mineral counties checked that highway and State Route 360 for possible damage, the Mineral County sheriff’s office said.
The Nye County sheriff’s office was also checking a report of possible damage to U.S. 95, Capt. David Boruchowitz told KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. “Other than that, just a bunch of people shaken up.”
The quake first struck just after 4 a.m. local time. It was originally classified as a 6.4 before being bumped up to a 6.5.
According to contributed reports from the U.S. Geological Survey, residents as far east as Salt Lake City, Utah, reported feeling the quake and as far southwest as San Diego, a 750-mile range of reported impacts.
“It really shook a lot of groceries off the shelves,” Keith Hasty, an employee at a gas station in Tonopah, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Hasty said residents who frequented the store were all talking about the quake.
The quakes, including the 6.5, struck in the desert between Tonopah and Hawthorne, according the a Nevada Seismological lab map of the earthquakes.
Does being woken up by your dog barking at a shaking closet door, thinking in your haze that it was the other dog scratching herself, then a ghost, then a burglar, before finally going “ahh, it’s an earthquake” count? https://t.co/EkqMp4F7Bs— Colton Lochhead (@ColtonLochhead) May 15, 2020
