Breaking: 6.3 Quake near Elko, Nevada

[havocmom]

Source: MSNBC

Just announced on MSNBC

No link yet.

---

Here is link to seismic monitor site showing quake
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[mac2]

1. That's a big one

[Warpy]

2. Depends on how deep it is

This one was shallow, 10 Km, so there will be reports of damage from the surrounding towns.

The only good thing is that it's in the relatively sparsely populated part of Nevada.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2008nsa9.php

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/37.47.-120.-110.php

[havocmom]

3. Had to laugh at MSNBC breaking into the McCain Circus on Morning Joe

Thought to myself: Was that the other shoe dropping.

Yeah, me bad.

[CreekDog]

5. depth: 10km

[mac2]

9. My In-laws in Palm Desert say earthquakes in that part of the world

are not as bad as others because the sand dispates it. I'll have to call to see if they felt it.

[Demeter]

24. 17 KM on Global Seismic Monitor

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/geofon/seismon/globmon.html

Wonder if it's more volcanic than tectonic.

[CreekDog]

4. only 11 miles from Wells, NV near I-80

roughly between Elko and Wendover.

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/117-41.html

[Phred42]

6. Luckily (I guess) there isn't much out there

[CreekDog]

15. actually Elko and Wendover are cities and Wells is a town

[NMDemDist2]

7. see?? all you doubters, this proves it's the perfect place for nuclear waste

:sarcasm:

[mac2]

14. Nuclear Waste

buried there would be a disaster since it would get into the water table during a earthquake, etc.

We have to do away with nuclear power plants. They take a lot of water to cool it. Plants can't operate without a lot of water. During the drought in France they had to shut them off from lack of water. Water is a big problem with over population, etc. You can't have both.

[Pavulon]

35. yep, solar and bird choppers

can run heavy industry. Need 900Mw you better just pray for it.

Cant smelt aluminum with solar cells.

No indication this would have compromised Yucca mtn facility.

[havocmom]

20. LOL Yeah, always my first thought when there is a quake in Nevada too.

If that stuff is so safe, in can stay in the backyards of the people who keep trying to send it to us out west!

[Stainless]

8. Felt it in Salt Lake City

I just started filling out my time card at my job on the West side of the Salt Lake Valley when the building started shaking. We are about two-hundred and fifty miles East of Elko. No damage here.

[Delphinus]

26. Thanks for the first-hand update. n/t

[comtec]

10. I've been IN elko before

it's nearly civilized!
Right on the border of Utah.
Now Ely... that's the middle of nowhere.
Nice Basque place in town however...

[UpInArms]

11. here's a Reuters link

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2145279020080221

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck northeastern Nevada on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

There were no immediate reports of damage in the nearest large city, Salt Lake City, Utah, although some residents were shaken by the morning quake, local radio said.

The quake, centered 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Wells, Nevada, struck at 7:16 a.m. PST (1416 GMT), with a shallow epicenter of 6.27 miles (10km) deep.

Wells, a town of about 1,300 people, is 382 miles (614 km) north of the gambling center of Las Vegas and 180 miles (290 km) west of Salt Lake City.

[havocmom]

21. Thanks for the link. Nothing online at the time I heard it on the tellie and posted

I DID check the seismic monitor site first though. I don't trust TV all that much ;)

[Auggie]

12. I'm getting nervous in Northern California

We're surrounded by seismic activity -- Mexico, Imperial Valley, Nevada. Our turn is coming

:yoiks:

[Xithras]

17. The Bay Area is due for a major quake on the Hayward.

Scientists now now that major quakes happen on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, with a +/- window of 23 years. The last major rip off that fault was in 1868 (140 years ago) and it was recently named the most dangerous fault in America. If you're under 40, it's almost a certainty you'll see it let go in your lifetime.

I read a report recently claiming that the USGS and Bay Area cities had completed a projection of what an expected 7 magnitude slip of the Hayward Fault would do. 150,000+ homes completely destroyed. 500,000+ homes damaged seriously enough to prevent habitation until repairs could be completed. Every freeway in the East Bay closed for months due to overpass collapses. Between 3 million and 5 million homeless.

And then it gets worse. All major water supplies into the Bay would be cut. The Hetch Hetchy and Delta taps would be turned off. Electricity would be disrupted for weeks. Food supplies would fall disasterously short because trucks would be unable to bring food in from the Central Valley (most of the support would be staged in the Valley, which is nearby with good air, road, and rail systems and would be relatively undamaged).

And then there's the fire danger. Without power to run city water pumps, or sufficient sources to pull it from, the Bay Area's fire hydrants would run dry fairly quickly as thousands of breaks quickly drained the system. We do have advantages today that didn't exist in 1906...like aerial bombers that could pull water from the Bay...but their effectiveness would be limited by how quickly they can respond. They can knock down small fires, but in a big one like the 1906 fire they will be little help.

In other words, it's going to make Katrina look like a warm up exercise. Remember the extensive damage that Loma Prieta did in 1989, and that was epicentered well south of the Bay Area, near Santa Cruz. Imagine that same quake epicentered directly underneath the Bay Area. If you visit the Loma Prieta epicenter in the Nicene Woods, you can still see the full-grown trees that had their trunks snapped like twigs by the power of the quake at ground zero.

[Auggie]

25. Yes. I must update that earthquake kit...

Lived in S.F. during Loma Prieta. I hated moving north, but I feel a bit safer. When the big one hits it will not be a very pleasant place. Neither will Berkeley, Oakland and the rest of the Hayward fault cities. It's going to be chaos.

I will feel a lot better when Clinton or Obama take over and we'll have competence at FEMA again. Heck, we'd have a POTUS who gives a damn about the Bay Area.

[havocmom]

22. meh, I grew up in Southern Calif and now live in the plume of Yellowstone Super Volcano

THAT puppy is about due ;)

[Gman]

13. Here's the details

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==

***This event supersedes event AT00360336.


Region: NEVADA
Geographic coordinates: 41.076N, 114.771W
Magnitude: 6.3 Mb
Depth: 10 km
Universal Time (UTC): 21 Feb 2008 14:16:05
Time near the Epicenter: 21 Feb 2008 06:16:05
Local standard time in your area: 21 Feb 2008 14:16:05

Location with respect to nearby cities:
17 km (11 miles) ESE (103 degrees) of Wells, NV
32 km (20 miles) NNW (343 degrees) of Spruce, NV
39 km (24 miles) S (183 degrees) of Wilkins, NV
70 km (43 miles) WNW (303 degrees) of West Wendover, NV
244 km (152 miles) W (279 degrees) of Salt Lake City, UT

[pscot]

16. This is the 9th major quake in the last 12 days

Since Feb. 8th, IRIS seismic monitor has reported 9 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or larger. In the last 24 hours Greece has been shaken by two quakes over magnitude 6. Another struck the Svaalbard region of Norway last night. Indonesia, Central America, Chile and the mid-Atlantic ridge have also been rockin' and rollin'.

[catzies]

36. Yup. And we had one here just inside the Baja California border, so that's SoCal-ish

:hide:

[sagetea]

18. I'm from Elko, Nv...

Just got off the phone with my sister who lives in Spring Creek, a suburb, on the floor of the Ruby Mtns.
There is structural damage, the old High School built in the late 1800's has damage, they closed all the schools down.
My friends in Wells, just called and they are trying to get some elderly people out of their trailer which collapsed, and they get out.
My sister just called while I was on here, the National guard has been called, they are meeting at the Baptist Church.
Major damage done to the schools. W.R.E.C, Wells Rural Electric Co. sustained interior damage.The mines have not reported any problems there.All the water mains have been broke, it is a fucking mess!!!!

[havocmom]

23. Thanks for the accounts from the area.

I am glad they shut down the schools. I recall that quake in ID back in early 80s. Not good for some school kids. I was in Helena for that one and our floor rolled like waves on water with that one. Dog was confused as hell watching the floor come alive.

Water mains broken? That's really bad news for cash strapped municipalities.

[mod mom]

19. At least one building collapsed-felt as far as southern California:

6.3 earthquake strikes northeastern Nevada; some reports of damage
35 minutes ago

WELLS, Nev. - A strong earthquake has shaken northeastern Nevada, causing at least one building to collapse and forcing the evacuation of a truck stop in the predominantly rural area.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 and was reported at 6:16 a.m. local time.
The U.S. Geological Survey says it was centred in a sparsely populated area 18 kilometres southeast of Wells, near the Nevada-Utah line.
The temblor was felt across eastern Nevada, Utah and as far away as southern California. In Twin Falls, Idaho, residents reported severe shaking and items falling off shelves.
-snip

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5giE1CqTdGun2TzSPUDgUhync4Ubg

[LeftyMom]

27. A lot of the homes in that area are mobile/modular. Anybody know how they do in a quake?

My g'parents lived in Crescent Valley, but since they passed I don't have anybody out in the desert anymore, just my aunt and cousins in Reno.

[slackmaster]

28. Modern manufactured homes do very well in quakes

As long as they don't fall over, they stay together.

[Juneboarder]

29. They either stand strong or

get destroyed... you never hear of minor damage to a mobile/manufactured home :)

[havocmom]

30. Depends a lot on how they are anchored. They are not known for stability

Double wides seem destined for trouble in a quake.

[sagetea]

31. I don't know how they are holding up..

I'm sure the older ones have alot of damage, a friend lives in a rental, and it slipped off the cinder blocks, they finally got them out.
They live outside of Wells where most of the damage was done. What I'm wondering, is they have Geo-thermal water all over that area, that I know for sure is on the same "caverns" (?) as up here in Idaho. I lived in Elko, for 20 yrs. and Wells for 19, and we never have had an earthquake of this magnitude, the last one was in 1956 in Fallen, Nv.
Just a little reminder, it is a "High Desert" there is a beauty to that area of Nevada, that reminds me of an older woman, she has alot of depth and character,but you have to see behind the crags of the desert to fully understand her beauty.
The modular homes were brought in as housing in the '80's for the gold boom, most of the residents in that area are from Wyoming and areas that are familiar to the gold mines.
Front street in Wells, that boasts of some incredible old buildings from the 1800's, that the city of Wells remodeled to bring in tourists, have been demolished by this Quake, it's sad, there was alot of western history, as well as mine, that is no longer there.

[NYC]

33. It sounds like a lot destruction.

Thanks for reporting, and please keep us posted.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[puerco-bellies]

37. Sorry to hear about the damage up there.

We are headed up there next month. Ali and me are getting married the third week of March and for our honeymoon we going to the No. 8 mine to collect turquoise, and possible to the Royston mine as well.

I know this is a bad time but would you mind me PM'in you about info for that area?

[MilesColtrane]

32. The Area 51 mothership must have just thrown a rod. n/t

[ileus]

34. underground nuke test???