3 Quakes Jolt Western Nevada Town
Three moderate earthquakes measuring magnitudes 4.6, 4.4 and 4.2 shook the western Nevada town of Hawthorne within an hour Thursday morning, causing minor damage, Nevada authorities reported.
A spokeswoman for the Mineral County Emergency Management Agency said some cracks occurred in buildings in the town of 4,000 residents from the temblors at 8:35, 9:11 and 9:36 a.m. There were no injuries reported.
The quakes were centered seven to 11 miles northeast of Hawthorne, which is located about 80 miles north of Bishop, Calif.
University of Nevada at Reno seismologist John Anderson said this part of Nevada had been seismically quiet for some time, although there was a magnitude 7.2 quake nearby in 1932.
Seismic recording instruments in California picked up the quakes and for a time gave erroneous signals that quakes had also occurred in the Owens Valley and close to Mojave.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
