September 1997 Press Release


Press Release
Seismological Laboratory
University of Nevada, Reno

12 September 1997 2:00 PM PDT

An M = 4.0 earthquake occurred on the Nevada Test Site at 06:36 (PDT) Friday morning. It was detected by most Nevada seismic stations, including those of the Southern Great Basin Digital Seismic Network (SGBDSN), a permanent network of 23 stations operated by the Seismological Laboratory in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The location is 36.845 N, 116.263 W, with a depth of approximately 10 km (6 mi). This location is rougly 45 km (28 mi) east of Beatty, Nevada. Personnel on the Nevada Test Site felt the earthquake, but no damage was reported. Numerous aftershocks have been recorded by the SGBDSN network.

A preliminary focal mechanism for this earthquake shows that it is a normal-faulting event on a fault plane striking slightly east of north.

The data reported here are preliminary. For more information, contact the Seismological Laboratory at (702) 784-4975, or at the WWW site http://www.seismo.unr.edu . The free pamphlet Earthquakes in Nevada and How to Survive Them, is available on request.