The August 23, 1954 earthquake
M5.2near Fallon Station, Nevada
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake, centred in Churchill County. The 66th strongest in Nevada’s record since 1900, and the strongest within 50 miles since a magnitude 6.5 on August 23, 1954. 7 aftershocks of magnitude 2.5 or more followed within 30 days.
The earthquake
- Magnitude
- 5.2
- local magnitude (ml)
- Depth
- —
- Not recorded
- Local time
- Monday, August 23, 1954
- 22:57 PDT; 05:57 UTC on Aug 24, 1954
- In Nevada’s record
- 66th
- strongest of 8,110 since 1900
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, event ushis1970 (“29 km NE of Fallon Station, 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.
7
Aftershocks in 30 days
5.8
Largest aftershock, Aug 31, 1954 · its page
1
On the first day
1
In the 7 days before
- 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.
- 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
- Churchill CountyNV · inside
- Lyon CountyNV · 33.9 mi
- Washoe CountyNV · 39.0 mi
- Lander CountyNV · 39.7 mi
- Nye CountyNV · 42.3 mi
- Mineral CountyNV · 42.3 mi
- Storey CountyNV · 44.3 mi
Cities, largest first
- FernleyNV · 39.4 mi
Earthquakes around the epicentre
139 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more within 50 miles of this epicentre since 1973.
Earlier earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more within 50 miles, strongest first
- August 23, 1954M6.5
- April 24, 1914M6.4
- July 6, 1954M6.2
- July 6, 1954M5.9
- July 6, 1954M5.7
- December 3, 1942M5.5
- July 6, 1954M5.5
- August 2, 1954M5.4
- July 8, 1954M5.3
- July 6, 1954M5.2
USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog. Local time is the time zone of the county nearest the epicentre. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them.