A rock landed on Highway 395 between Walker and Coleville as a result of an earthquake that occurred on Thursday afternoon.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
A clerk was just finishing up putting cans back on the shelves at the Walker General Store on Thursday evening after a 3:50 p.m. earthquake that was felt across Nevada and California.
Staff at the store near the epicenter of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake said they lost some wine bottles off the shelf and called in extra help to clear the damage.
There’s a difference on the exact magnitude of the quake that struck just over the ridge from Walker and Highway 395.
The U.S. Geological Survey is listing the quake as a 6.0 magnitude and one of the biggest earthquakes of the day, while the University of Nevada, Reno, is giving it a 5.82.
Either way, the earthquake sent rocks into the highway in the Walker River Canyon trapping one motorist near Sonora Junction.
Highway 395 was closed at 4:20 p.m. for about an hour while California Department of Transportation workers cleared rocks from the road at a few points along its length.
In the five hours since the earthquake there have been
The driver of a black Toyota was stuck in a rockslide near Sonora Junction.
Large rocks rolled onto the shoulder near Walker, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A few rocks were reported in the road around Topaz Lake, blocking the roadway.
The earthquake was felt all over Carson Valley, with several residents saying it felt like a vehicle struck the building they were inside.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was felt as far away as San Francisco.
Within minutes of the earthquake, dozens of people had responded to the USGS Did you feel it site. By 8:20 p.m., that number was in the thousands, with hundreds of Douglas County residents weighing in.
The Nevada Seismology Lab recorded 75 aftershocks, including a 4.68 quake at 4:30 p.m. and a 4.55 at 6:50 p.m.
May 15 marked the anniversary of the 6.5 Monte Cristo earthquake centered southwest of Tonopah near Coaldale, the largest in Nevada in 65 years. The fault there is still active and has seen thousands of earthquakes over the intervening year.
Nevada is one of the top states in the nation when it comes to earthquakes.
Western Nevada is in the Walker Lane, which extends east of the Sierra from south of Death Valley to north of Pyramid Lake. According to researchers, the Walker Lane takes up 15-25 percent of the boundary motion between the Pacific and North American plates with the rest taken up by the San Andreas Fault.
