Latest earthquakes

Author: Huizhong Chen

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) issued a warning on March 4th about a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Nevada, but later withdrew the warning, stating it was a false alarm.

Earlier that day, the USGS's Shake Alert system issued a warning that a 5.9 magnitude earthquake had occurred at 4:06 PM GMT on March 4th, 6 kilometers east of Dayton, Nevada.

The earthquake alarm immediately alarmed the public, but the USGS quickly realized it was a false alarm; no earthquake had occurred. The USGS withdrew the warning and announced an investigation into the cause of the false alarm, promising to release updates to the public.

A geophysicist at the USGS stated that this may be the first time the agency has issued a completely false earthquake warning.

A series of moderate to small earthquakes struck the Geysers, a geologically active area in Northern California south of Clear Lake, on Thursday, according to reports from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The quakes, the strongest of which registered a magnitude of 4.0, occurred near Sonoma County.

The USGS said the strongest earthquake occurred at 5:48 a.m., with its epicenter approximately 13.5 miles northeast of Healdsburg.

The 4.0 magnitude quake was followed by three smaller 3.0 magnitude quakes in the same area at 5:51 a.m., within seconds of each other.

The epicenter of the earthquakes was approximately three miles northwest of Geysers Volcano, a volcanic region prone to minor earthquakes. Several steam power plants have been built in the area due to ongoing geothermal activity.

In a new study published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists warn that a major earthquake fault, dormant for 12,000 years, is awakening.

This fault, called the Tintina Fault, stretches like a massive scar, diagonally across the Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada and into Alaska, USA, for approximately 1,000 kilometers.

It was previously widely believed that the Tintina Fault, while once highly active, was no longer a threat. Monitoring data from recent decades seems to confirm this: aside from occasional minor earthquakes of magnitude 3 or 4, the Tintina Fault has been remarkably quiet.

However, past earthquake studies in the region have largely relied on historical records and modern instrumental monitoring, which together cover only a few hundred years. For an earthquake fault with activity cycles of tens of thousands or even millions of years, this is like trying to judge a person's lifetime based on a single second of…