Earthquake in Gerlach

An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale hit Washoe County north of Reno at 4:54 a.m. Sunday.

The quake's epicenter was located approximately 12 miles south of Gerlach but, so far, experts say the quake activity is nothing to worry about.

''Obviously, we're watching it, but we're not particularly concerned that it's going to turn into anything big,'' said John Anderson, director of the seismology laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno. ''We don't find it to be particularly unusual.''

The depth of the quake was computed to be about three miles and very near the magnitude of a 3.8 quake reported Thursday. It occurred in an area that has had 12 earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 2 and three earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 3 since Oct. 5 of this year.

The Richter scale is a gauge of the energy released by an earthquake based on the ground motion recorded on a seismograph, and every increase in number means that the ground motion is 10 times greater.

A quake of magnitude 2 is the smallest normally felt by humans; 3.5 can cause slight damage and 4.0 can cause moderate damage.

The shaky spot is on the east edge of the Smoke Creek Desert at the northern end of the Fox Range in a desolate part of the state about 12 miles southwest of Gerlach.

''We don't have any 'felt' reports,'' Anderson said. ''It would be fairly unusual for a quake that size to cause damage.''

The weekend produced a second jolt in northwestern Nevada, a 3.8 bump Saturday in Dixie Valley, an area which produced one of the state's strongest recorded quakes nearly a half century ago.

A 6.8 magnitude temblor occurred there on Dec. 16, 1954, just four minutes after a 7.1 jolt at Fairview Peak 50 miles south.

Anderson said that despite the elapsed time, the Dixie Valley quake was within the aftershock zone of the one in 1954 that split the earth with a rift that's still visible.

''It could be a very slowly dying aftershock,'' he said.

The laboratory operates a statewide network of seismographic stations and investigates the sizes, frequencies of occurrence, and distribution of earthquakes in the region as well as other problems related to seismic risk in Nevada.