Nevada’s Hidden Earthquake Hazards Revealed as Las Vegas and Reno Shake – Las Vegas Sun News

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 | 2 am

The recent series of earthquakes in Nevada were a horrific reminder of the state’s seismic risks.

It started with a frightening earthquake near Reno, then an even more alarming tremor near Las Vegas. Neither earthquake caused significant damage, but it got Nevada talking about the major geological forces that caused them.

Although California is known for its seismic activity, experts say the danger does not stop at the state’s borders. There are several fault systems that cross the border between California and Nevada, and one area that scientists are concerned about is the Lake Tahoe Basin, according to Christy Rowe, director of the Nevada Seismic Laboratory.

“There are some big faults under the lake there,” she said. “They have had very large earthquakes in the past.”

The last major earthquake in the Silver State in recent days occurred at 1:17 a.m. Friday, with a magnitude of 5.2 about 40 miles east of Reno. Just two days ago, a 4.4-magnitude force shook the desert about 60 miles north of Sin City, where some people reported a weak tremor.

The area east of Reno also experienced a bout of seismic activity earlier in April. The strongest quake of the series was a 5.7-magnitude quake 45 miles east of the city that was strong enough to cause a moderate to strong jolt in the small town of Silver Springs and knock items off shelves and out of cabinets, according to media reports. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage as a result of the earthquake that occurred on April 13.

The spate of earthquakes is a reminder that earthquakes do pose a threat to Nevada — less profound than California’s, to be sure, but just as real.

Perhaps less well known, Las Vegas is surrounded on all sides by faults, which may be surprising considering that a devastating earthquake has not struck the city in its short modern history.

But if and when that happens, the consequences could be dire. A hypothetical 7.0 magnitude earthquake near Las Vegas could cause about $21 billion in damage, destroying buildings and vulnerable infrastructure, according to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

Incline Village — a town on the northeastern edge of Lake Tahoe — “closed the school when they discovered they were on the Incline Fault, which generated a magnitude 7 magnitude in geologic history,” Rowe said.

Scientists say that the Tahoe Basin could witness strong earthquakes every few thousand years. Earthquakes of this strength could pose the risk of tsunami-like waves on the lake itself, with potential heights of more than 30 feet — capable of inundating many nearshore areas.

The last major earthquake occurred on the West Tahoe Fault, along the western shore of Lake Tahoe, capable of producing a magnitude 7.1 to 7.4 earthquake. The last major earthquake occurred about 4,000 years ago.

Earthquakes are also capable of causing landslides in the Tahoe Basin. One landslide that occurred about 50,000 years ago may have caused waves to rise more than 100 feet.

The threat of earthquakes causing landslides in lake areas is not just theoretical. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 1959 with an epicenter in Montana near Yellowstone National Park caused the largest earthquake-triggered landslide ever in North America. Of the 28 dead, 26 died when the landslide buried a crowded camping area, according to the US Geological Survey.

Among the fault systems that worries Rowe about Las Vegas in particular lie west of the city: the Death Valley fault system and faults in adjacent valleys.

“We know that those faults generated magnitude 7,” Rowe said.

The Death Valley Fault System is located about 95 miles from Las Vegas. Another system, the Tornado Fault System, is about 75 miles away, “located in the northern corner of Arizona and all the way to Utah,” according to Rowe.

The latter, she said, was “a very big mistake but he’s been very quiet lately.”

“Then there are some drawbacks to Las Vegas itself,” she added, but not much is known about them. Part of the problem is that many of the delicate earth formations that scientists need to study to detect evidence of past earthquakes have already been built up.

Nevada lacks a key earthquake safety tool that California, Oregon and Washington have: the Earthquake Early Warning System run by the USGS, which sends alerts to smartphones or computers before tremors start.

Congress has appropriated funds to the USGS to implement this system in Nevada, but more money is needed to build the system in that state. USGS budget cuts and a hiring freeze have made efforts to expand the earthquake early warning system difficult, Roy said.

“How do you expand the program to a larger area when the agency running it is understaffed?” Rue said.

Notably, seismic sensors from Nevada are available to help warn Californians that a massive earthquake in Las Vegas has begun and that incoming tremors are seconds away.

“Ironically, if there was an earthquake in the Las Vegas area, the Californians who would be affected would get warnings,” Rowe said. “But in Nevada, we won’t get the warnings.”

Nevada’s vulnerabilities include unreinforced brick buildings, of which there may be tens of thousands throughout the state. Brick buildings are among the deadliest types of structures in earthquakes, as walls collapsing outward can kill people walking on the sidewalk and even crush cars and buses with deadly force.

The recently quake-hit community of Silver Springs was built on an ancient lake bed that amplifies the shaking from the quake, and there are a lot of mobile homes there, according to Rowe.

In general, mobile homes are two to five times more vulnerable to earthquakes than wood-frame homes, according to California earthquake experts.

“I’ve had a lot of calls from Silver Springs residents who felt aftershocks — even as strong as magnitude 3,” Rowe said. “They were talking about what sounds like constant shaking when they experience repeated aftershocks right after the main shock.”

One woman said she was at home with her daughter when the earthquake occurred.

“It was difficult to walk. I tried to grab her to go under the table. It was difficult to move and maneuver and we heard things falling,” she told KTVN-TV. The shaking was “really unnerving” and strong enough to break her television set.

Nevada has been largely spared devastating earthquakes since the 1960s, with the exception of the 2008 6.0 Wells earthquake, which caused an abandoned two-story building to collapse, partially collapse two other buildings, and damaged about 30 other buildings in the northeastern part of the state. Officials reported losses of $19 million.

But from the 1850s to the 1950s, 22 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater occurred in Nevada.

In 2020, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred in Nevada, but it was in a remote area — about 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas and 125 miles southeast of Carson City. The Nevada Highway Patrol reported earthquake damage on a half-mile section of U.S. Highway 95, where large cracks appeared. Crews made a temporary quick fix by shaving off the raised portion of the highway to reduce bumps felt by motorists.

Even a magnitude 6 or 7 earthquake located far from the city can cause damage or death. The first documented earthquake-related death in Nevada occurred during one of two powerful Ridgecrest earthquakes in early July 2019, which also caused shaking across the Southern California region.

The body of Troy Ray, 55, was found on July 9, 2019; He appears to have been working under his Jeep in his hometown of Pahrump, Nevada, about 95 miles northeast of the epicenter, and it is believed his vehicle fell on top of him.

Are the recent earthquakes in Nevada a sign of concern?

It’s actually “basically normal for Nevada earthquakes,” Rowe said. “These earthquakes in Nevada don’t change anything about earthquake risk in California.”

However, large earthquakes can occur without warning, and that’s part of the danger of living in places like California and Nevada.

Rowe said people should participate in earthquake drills like ShakeOut, which is scheduled for Oct. 15 and remind people what to do when they feel shaken by an earthquake: fall, cover and cling.

“At 10:15 a.m., schoolchildren will do it, but everyone should do it,” Rowe said.

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