5.8 Quake Hits Northwestern Nevada

Earthquake rattles northwestern Nevada on Monday afternoon, estimated at 5.8

Brett McGinness

Siobhan McAndrew

Ariel Smith

An earthquake jolted western Nevada on Monday afternoon, with the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at UNR reporting a magnitude estimate of 5.8. The quake's magnitude earlier had been estimated at 5.7 and 5.5.

The quake struck 15.5 miles north-northeast of the town of Yerington, about 45 miles east-southeast of Reno-Sparks, at 3:08 p.m.

More than 10,000 people reported feeling the earthquake on the U.S. Geological Survey website in a little over two hours since the quake it.

Fourteen aftershocks struck the same area before 5:30 p.m., ranging in size from 2.5 to 4.2.

The initial quake's depth was reported at a relatively shallow 8.4 kilometers beneath the earth's surface. Any quake less than 70 kilometers deep is considered to be shallow by USGS standards.

"Although this earthquake was in Nevada, it was large enough to be detected by the earthquake early warning system in California,” she said, “so it’s possible that if people have their home base set to California, or they have another setting on their alert app to get California alerts and then they may have gotten one for this event.”