The November 18, 1910 earthquake

M5.5Near Tonopah Junction, Nevada

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake, centred in Esmeralda County. The 37th strongest in Nevada’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles in the catalogue, which runs from 1900. 3 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.

The earthquake

Magnitude
5.5
as reported (mint)
Depth
—
Not recorded
Local time
Friday, November 18, 1910
18:25 PST; 02:25 UTC on Nov 19, 1910
Epicentre
38.00°N, 118.00°W
In Esmeralda County
In Nevada’s record
37th
strongest of 8,110 since 1900
Within 50 miles
5
counties; more on this date

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ushis514 (“Near Tonopah Junction, Nevada”). The USGS event page carries the ShakeMap, felt reports and the official summary.

Aftershocks

Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more within 20 miles of the epicentre in the 30 days after.

3

Aftershocks in 30 days

6.1

Largest aftershock, Nov 21, 1910 · its page

0

On the first day

0

In the 7 days before

Aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more, by day after the earthquake 1: 0 2: 0 3: 2 2 4: 1 5: 0 6: 0 7: 0 8: 0 9: 0 10: 0 11: 0 12: 0 13: 0 14: 0 15: 0 16: 0 17: 0 18: 0 19: 0 20: 0 21: 0 22: 0 23: 0 24: 0 25: 0 26: 0 27: 0 28: 0 29: 0 30: 0 1611162126
  1. The search radius is the surface rupture length expected for an earthquake of this magnitude (Wells and Coppersmith, 1994), at least 20 and at most 600 miles, so a great earthquake's sequence is counted along its whole fault.
  2. Before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s many small aftershocks went unrecorded, so early sequences read short.

Counties and cities within 50 miles

Distance from the epicentre to each county boundary (zero when inside) and to each city centre.

Counties

Earthquakes around the epicentre

2,030 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.

Earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of the epicentre, by year 1973: 2 1974: 9 1975: 8 1976: 17 1977: 3 1978: 57 1979: 22 1980: 184 1981: 29 1982: 37 1983: 17 1984: 64 1985: 21 1986: 363 1987: 22 1988: 17 1989: 6 1990: 12 1991: 17 1992: 18 1993: 10 1994: 4 1995: 8 1996: 5 1997: 59 1998: 16 1999: 10 2000: 35 2001: 15 2002: 8 2003: 13 2004: 63 2005: 14 2006: 14 2007: 14 2008: 7 2009: 6 2010: 4 2011: 66 2012: 3 2013: 21 2014: 8 2015: 5 2016: 11 2017: 3 2018: 4 2019: 6 2020: 538 538 2021: 63 2022: 29 2023: 21 2024: 12 2025: 10 19731978198319881993199820032008201320182023

No earlier earthquake of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles in the catalogue since 1900.

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.