1954 Nevada earthquakes

Earthquake sequence in Nevada May 2025 February 2025 39.283 -118.117 region:US inline, title Nevada July 6, 1954 to March 23, 1959 Oblique-slip (Normal) Nevada Yes X Yes 1954-07-06 11:13:23 1954-07-06 22:07:44 1954-08-24 05:51:32 1954-12-16 11:07:11 1954-12-16 11:11:34 1959-03-23 07:10:26 iscgem890822 iscgem890827 iscgem890996 iscgem891356 iscgem891357 iscgem881629 5.9–6.2 w yes 6.2 w yes 6.5–6.6 w yes 7.1–7.3 w yes 6.6–6.9 w yes 6.3 l yes 890822 890827 890996 891356 891357 881629 Several injured In 1954, the state of Nevada was struck by a series of earthquakes that began with three magnitude 6.0+ events in July and August that preceded the w 7.1–7.3 mainshock and M 6.9 aftershock, both on December 16. All five earthquakes are among the largest in the state, and the largest since the Cedar Mountain earthquake (M 7.2) of 1932 and Pleasant Valley event (s 7.7) in 1915. The earthquake was felt throughout much of the western United States. Geology The state of Nevada sits within a geologic province known as the Basin and Range. The Basin and Range Province is bounded by the Colorado Plateau, Wasatch Fault, Rio Grande Rift and Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. This region in the North American continent is rifting apart in a northwest–southeast direction. Extension of the crust has resulted in a basin and range topography, dominated by dip-slip (normal) faults accommodating extension. Fault block tilting has created many mountain ranges no more than 16 km wide and 130 km long. The movement of the Sierra Nevada Microplate to the northwest compared to the North American plate's movement southwest creates a zone of N–S trending distributed faulting in central Nevada known as the Central Nevada Seismic Belt (CNSB). The CNSB is a network of low slip rate faults that have been active since at least the late Quaternary. This area has experienced multiple "beltlike" rupture patterns in the past 13,000 years, with the much more recent 1903 Wonder earthquake, 1915 Pleasant Valley earthquake, 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake, and the 1934 Excelsior Mountain earthquakes having historical equivalents. In western Nevada, along the border with California, faulting mechanisms are dominantly strike-slip along a shear zone known as the Walker Lane. These faults also causes earthquakes to rattle the state, making Nevada the third most seismically active state in the United States, behind Alaska and California. Earthquake sequence Rainbow Mountain earthquakes The first earthquake within the sequence of numerous large shocks occurred on July 6. The event had a magnitude of 6.8 and its focal mechanism was oblique-slip along the Rainbow Mountain Fault. Rupture started at the very southern portion of the fault and propagated northeastward. Surface rupture was recorded. An aftershock of w 6.2 struck just eleven hours after the M 6.8. Rupture was to the south of the Rainbow Mountain Fault scarp from the mainshock and had a larger strike slip component. It was situated at Salt Wells Marsh, next to the Austin Highway. The shock had a maximum intensity of IX–X, while the large aftershock had a maximum intensity of VIII on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. Stillwater earthquake On August 24, an w6.6 earthquake with a similar mechanism struck north at the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge. Rupture started within the scarp created a month and a half earlier, but it propagated northward through it for a new 20 km on of displacement. Surface rupture was measured for 33.1 km. The occurrence of three distinct subevents may explain the complexity of determining the method of faulting within the event. The maximum intensity for this earthquakes was IX (Violent). It damaged dams and irrigation facilities around Lovelock. Fairview earthquake 200px|thumb|right|A fault scarp at Fairview Peak after the w 7.3 shock on December 16. On December 16 at 3:07 a.m. PST,Slemmons David B. 1957 Geological effects of the Dixie Valley-Fairview Peak, Nevada, earthquakes of December 16, 1954 http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/bssa0470040353 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 47 4 353–375 10.1785/bssa0470040353 1957BuSSA..47..353S 1943-3573 subscription the largest earthquake in the sequence, the w 7.3 earthquake was triggered by oblique-slip displacement along the Fairview Peak, West Gate and Gold King Fault, and Louderback Mountain Faults for a total length of 100 km, of which 14 km intersects the rupture zone of the 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake. Along the Fairview fault, this event produced 2.9 m on of dextral (right lateral) strike slip offset, as well as 3.8 m on of vertical slipping offset. Rake measurements along fault scarps were 30° to 60°, with the average rake being closer to 60°. Strike slip offsets of over 1 m on were recorded on the West Gate and Louderback Mountain faults, while less than 1 meter of normal faulting slip was found along the Gold King fault. In Bell Flat, 3.6 meters of normal slip was measured. Fault scarps of 7 meters in height were seen for 102 meters in the valley. A maximum height of 23 feet was measured for one scarp, attributed to scarp-altering processes such as landslides increasing the apparent height of the scarp. Shaking intensity from this earthquake reached X (Extreme) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. Fault offsets were reported in four zones across a 96 km by 32 km area. This earthquake was felt for an area of 518,000 square km. Disruption of local springs (decreased flow, increased flow, etc.), landslides and mudflows, temporary mud and silt volcanoes, and a "patchwork" of anastomosing secondary cracks all resulted from the earthquake. Dixie Valley earthquake Four minutes and 20 seconds after the Fairview earthquake, an w6.6–6.9 earthquake struck west of Humboldt Salt Marsh along the Dixie Valley Fault Zone. This event ruptured a separate fault for 46.7 km with a maximum vertical slip of 3.7 m on. Surface slip of over 1 m on occurred along around 23 km on of the Dixie Valley Fault, and the average slip along the entire rupture was 1.2 m on. Aftershocks Numerous aftershocks were triggered in the wake of the earthquake including an l 6.3 on March 23, 1959. + Earthquakes w 5.0 or greater in the 1954-1959 Nevada earthquake sequenceMagUTCRef6.81954-07-06 11:13:205.51954-07-06 11:18:04M 5.5 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1942/executive November 22, 2020 United States Geological Survey5.71954-07-06 11:49:00M 5.7 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1945/ United States Geological Survey5.21954-07-06 13:15:11M 5.2 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1947/ United States Geological Survey6.21954-07-06 22:07:415.31954-07-08 19:31:57M 5.3 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1955/ United States Geological Survey5.11954-07-30 02:00:10M 5.1 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1963/ United States Geological Survey5.41954-08-02 10:18:53M 5.4 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1965/ United States Geological Survey6.61954-08-24 05:51:325.21954-08-24 05:57:46M 5.2 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1970/ United States Geological Survey5.81954-08-31 22:20:32M 5.8 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1977/ United States Geological Survey5.51954-09-01 05:18:46M 5.5 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1978/ United States Geological Survey7.31954-12-16 11:07:116.91954-12-16 11:11:345.01954-12-16 11:50:36M 5.0 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1987/ United States Geological Survey5.01954-12-16 11:57:30M 5.0 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1988/ United States Geological Survey5.01954-12-16 13:15:03M 5.0 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1989/ United States Geological Survey5.81954-12-16 14:16:57M 5.8 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1990/ United States Geological Survey5.31954-12-16 14:24:10M 5.3 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1991/ United States Geological Survey5.11954-12-16 15:09:42M 5.1 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1992/ United States Geological Survey5.01954-12-17 20:27:06M 5.0 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1997/ United States Geological Survey5.01954-12-20 17:36:47M 5.0 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis1999/ United States Geological Survey5.11956-07-26 09:53:17M 5.1 – Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ushis2098/ United States Geological Survey6.01959-03-23 07:10:26 Aftermath Numerous fault scarps and offset stream channels were reported as a result of surface ruptures. The July 6 earthquake caused some destruction in the town of Fallon. Old and poorly built, un-reinforced brick structures were severely damaged, and many chimneys fell as a result. Twelve sailors were injured at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station when shaking knocked heavy steel lockers and shattered glass onto them, the most serious injury was a broken leg. At Lone Tree and Stillwater District, some limited damage was reported, such as canals banks shifting nearly a meter as well as the bottoms being raised by a little over half a meter. Canals and drainage systems of the Newlands Reclamation Project near Fallon were damaged heavily due to liquefaction from dam failure. Many culverts were damaged or had collapsed. Highways in the Fallon-Stillwater areas cracked and buckled in some places. A road dropped nearly a meter for more than 300 meters.Fallon-Stillwater Earthquake – Nevada – July 6, 1954 https://devastatingdisasters.com/fallon-stillwater-earthquake-nevada-july-6-1954/ November 22, 2020 Devastating Disasters President Eisenhower declared the region a disaster area and made available $200,000 of disaster relief funding. The August earthquake caused further destruction to Fallon; seven more structures had to be torn down due to the severity of the damage. More windows, water pipelines and chimneys were broken. The earthquake also totally wrecked repair works done after the July shock. The Rogers Dam in Lovelock suffered considerable damage. The December 16 main shocks frightened the residents of Fallon, many of them did not stay in their homes during the winter night. In Reno, the earthquake was felt strongly by many. Plasters fell from the Nevada State Capitol Building in Carson. Heavy furniture was dislodged but damage was minor in Frenchman Station. Fallon suffered only a few cracked chimneys. Fissures up to 30 inches wide opened in highways and the landscape. The earthquakes also triggered rockfalls and deposited large boulders onto highways. US-50 experienced some buckling and cracks, and some roads dropped more than 1.5 meters due to surface faulting. In Sacramento, 322 km away, the earthquake caused some $20,000 in damages to a water tank belonging to the city's filtration plant. See also List of earthquakes in Nevada List of earthquakes in 1954 References ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900–2012) http://www.isc.ac.uk/iscgem/index.php ISC 2016 International Seismological Centre Version 3.0 Coffman Jerry L. Von Hake Carl A. Stover Carl W. Earthquake history of the United States https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70114182 USGS Publications Warehouse 1982 277 U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey 21 August 2022 Bell John W. Caskey John S. Ramelli Alan R. Guerrieri Luca Pattern and Rates of Faulting in the Central Nevada Seismic Belt, and Paleoseismic Evidence for Prior Beltlike Behavior Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 1 August 1994 94 4 1229–1254 10.1785/012003226 https://doi.org/10.1785/012003226 20 August 2022 subscription Stover C. W. Coffman J. L. Seismicity of the United States, 1568–1989 (Revised) – U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527 https://books.google.com/books?id=bY0KAQAAIAAJ 1993 United States Government Printing Office 95, 168 Price Jonathan G. 2004 Geology of Nevada http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/_docs/GeologyOfNevada.pdf University of Nevada, Reno Significant Earthquake Database https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-data?area=NV&minYear=1954&country=USA National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS) National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA 10.7289/V5TD9V7K 1972 Data Set Doser Diane I. Earthquake processes in the Rainbow Mountain-Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley, Nevada, region 1954–1959 Journal of Geophysical Research 10 November 1986 91 B12 12572–12586 10.1029/JB091iB12p12572 1986JGR....9112572D 129358874 https://doi.org/10.1029/JB091iB12p12572 20 August 2022 Kathleen M. Hodgkinson Ross S. Stein Geoffrey C. P. King The 1954 Rainbow Mountain-Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley earthquakes: A triggered normal faulting sequence https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/96JB01302 Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 1996 101 B11 25459–25471 10.1029/96JB01302 1996JGR...10125459H AGU subscription dePolo Craig An Introduction to Nevada's Earthquake Hazards 1989 http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/_docs/Newsletters/nl2.htm S. John Caskey John W. Bell Alan R. Ramelli Steven G. Wesnousky Historic Surface Faulting and Paleoseismicity in the Area of the 1954 Rainbow Mountain–Stillwater Earthquake Sequence, Central Nevada https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228773493 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2004 94 4 1255–1275 10.1785/012003012 2004BuSSA..94.1255C Nevada's Earthquake History https://www.shakeout.org/nevada/downloads/NV_Earthquake_Hazard_History.pdf November 22, 2020 shakeout.org Caskey S. J. Wesnousky S. G. Zhang P. Slemmons D. B. Surface faulting of the 1954 Fairview Peak (MS 7.2) and Dixie Valley (MS 6.8) earthquakes, central Nevada Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 1996 86 3 761–787 10.1785/BSSA0860030761 1996BuSSA..86..761C 130536601 Moreno Rich 19 April 2019 All shook up in Fairview Valley Nevada Appeal https://www.nevadaappeal.com/entertainment/all-shook-up-in-fairview-valley/ 22 November 2020 30 November 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201130042329/https://www.nevadaappeal.com/entertainment/all-shook-up-in-fairview-valley/ dead 23 December 2015 Nevada earthquakes evoke memories of past quakes Reno Gazette-Journal https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2015/12/23/renoretro-swarm-evokes-memories-earthquakes-past/77839316/ 22 November 2020 Earthquakes in Dixie Valley http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/earthquakes-dixie-valley 22 November 2020 Diane Gauthier-Novak 8 November 2010 Online Nevada 29 November 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201129164139/http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/earthquakes-dixie-valley dead Schwab Brianna 10 April 2019 1954 Earthquake http://ccmuseum.org/2019/04/10/1954-earthquake-2/ 22 November 2020 Churchill County Museum and Archives 27 November 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201127134018/http://ccmuseum.org/2019/04/10/1954-earthquake-2/ dead M 7.1 – 53 km N of Gabbs, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem891356/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 M 6.6 – 42 km NNE of Gabbs, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem891357/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 M 6.5 – 17 km ESE of Fallon Station, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem890996/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 M 5.9 – 21 km SSE of Fallon Station, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem890827/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 M 6.2 – 12 km E of Fallon Station, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem890822/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 M 5.7 – 47 km E of Fallon Station, Nevada https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem881629/executive ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog United States Geological Survey 20 August 2022 Category:Earthquakes in Nevada Category:1954 earthquakes Category:Natural disasters in Nevada Category:Earthquake clusters, swarms, and sequences Category:Disasters in Nevada Category:December 1954 in the United States Category:August 1954 in the United States Category:1954 natural disasters in the United States