earthquakes

With river levels expected to rise in the weeks and months ahead, the Lyon County Board of Commissioners approved a declaration of emergency on Thursday for all of Lyon County in preparation for potential flooding from spring and summer snow melt run off.

CARSON CITY, Nev. – The Nevada Department of Transportation’s dedicated bridge inspection and rehabilitation program has helped Nevada bridges to be named the nation’s best for the fourth consecutive year.

I was awakened last week out of a sound sleep by the windows rattling and the bed shaking violently. The wind chimes were going crazy. About 15 minutes later, it happened again.

Earthquake!

Three magnitude 5.5 to 5.7 earthquakes struck about 18 miles southwest of Hawthorne, Nevada just after midnight Wednesday December 28, 2016, the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno reported. Reports so far indicate minimal damage due to the remote nature of the earthquake sequence.

People from the Central Valley of California to the middle of Nevada felt several earthquakes overnight, with the two largest recorded at 5.7 magnitude, followed by 73 other tremblers between midnight and 9:30 a.m. December 28, 2016.

UPDATE: This original story has been updated to reflect more than 70 earthquakes that have been recorded since the initial one at 12:18 a.m. Wednesday morning and the subsequent monitoring by seismologists. Go here for the updated story.

We are humanists and, so, optimists.

Against us in the political sphere stand environmentalists and other anti-humanists. These folks see not progress, but threat, in seemingly everything done by man.

We see man as being born into an uncertain and challenging world. In a state of nature, earthquakes, tornadoes and other disasters combine with infections and shortages of food, shelter and other basic resources to threaten man's very survival. But over centuries, humans have applied their intelligence to shape the world around them.

You know you’re probably going to need some coffee, so head over to Dutch Brothers in the Carson Mall parking lot. One dollar of every drink goes to the Carson High Safe Grad Celebration. Western Nevada College is hosting an open house in the Reynolds Center for Technology featuring some of their great programs. Stick around for the artist reception celebrating the ‘521 Days’ exhibit by artist Wes Lee in the Bristlecone Building’s main gallery. Stop what you’re doing at 10:20 a.m. and brace yourself: the Great Nevada Shake-out Drill reminds us to be ready for earthquakes.

A pair of earthquakes rattled the Reno area on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS reported a 3.1-magnitude quake struck at noon about 4 miles south of Sparks and 6 miles east-southeast of Reno. About an hour later, at 1:01 p.m., the USGS reported that a 2.1-magnitude earthquake struck the same area.

A 2.5 magnitude earthquake was registered Saturday afternoon 15.8 miles south of South Lake Tahoe, according to the Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

The Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno reported a magnitude 3.9 earthquake located near the communities of Gerlach and Empire, about 75 miles north of Reno. The earthquake occurred at 7:20 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2016. The magnitude 3.9 is the largest of just over 300 earthquakes that have been located in the area since April 20.

Weekend lane closures will take place beginning Friday, May 13 on Interstate 580 through Washoe Valley as the Nevada Department of Transportation continues a project to repave the aging roadway surface.

Northbound I-580 will be reduced to a single lane from 7 p.m. Friday, May 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 16 between the exit 50 Bowers Mansion interchange and the I-580/North Carson Street interchange for paving.

Four bridges have been enhanced and improved for earthquake safety and stability along Highway 395 in the Carson Valley south of Carson City, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

International experts will join with local seismologists in a public forum this month to inform the region on the dangers and probabilities of devastating earthquakes, and how to recover economically as a region.

Contrary to the general public perception, the California-Nevada border region is at risk for large, magnitude 7-plus earthquakes striking the greater Reno-Tahoe region. In a magnitude 6 earthquake, according to FEMA estimates, the region could suffer billions of dollars in damage: $1.9 billion in the Reno/Sparks area and $590 million in the Stateline area.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of March 21-27: Work will continue on the Downtown Corridor improvement project on Carson Street in the following locations:

Motorists are being reminded of ramp closures as the Nevada Department of Transportation continues construction of an auxiliary merge lane from Alternative U.S. 395/Eastlake Boulevard to southbound I-580 in north Carson City.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of Feb. 8-14, 2016: Utility work will continue Monday through Friday as indicated below, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with possible flagger controlled traffic at the following locations:

Beginning Wednesday, the 48-year-old Bellevue Road bridge over Interstate 580 north of Carson City in Washoe Valley is temporarily closed for $15 million worth of seismic retrofit work and enhancements, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

More than 17,500 earthquakes were recorded in 2015 by the University of Nevada, Reno’s Nevada Seismological Laboratory. That includes the 231 recent quakes in south Reno and the magnitude 4.8 in Caliente that shook Las Vegas in January 2015.

An earthquake swarm continues to rattle the Reno area today with more than 30 events recorded since Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The largest quake was a 4.4 magnitude recorded at 10:46 p.m. It was felt as far south as Carson City and east into the Dayton area. No serious damage was reported.
The most recent quake had a 1.9 magnitude at 9:26 a.m. Wednesday morning.

A series of earthquakes rolled through the Reno area late Tuesday night with the strongest a 4.4 magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As of 11:15 p.m. at least 6 quakes have shaken the area.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of Nov. 23-29: NDOT will begin construction work Sunday night on the auxiliary lane of southbound I-580 from the Eastlake Boulevard interchange to the N. Carson Street off-ramp. There will be nightly lane closures from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. through Wednesday morning, Nov. 25.

The Nevada Department of Transportation will begin construction of an auxiliary merge lane from Alternative U.S. 395/Eastlake Boulevard to southbound I-580 in north Carson City. The work is part of a project to repave the aging roadway surface, seismically retrofit bridges and make other improvements on Interstate 580 in Washoe Valley.

Here is the Carson City area road report for the week of Nov. 16-22, 2015. Division Street will be closed, due to road construction, between Fifth Street and King Street on Monday until Friday. Detours will be signed.

Science is a process, not a doctrine. It asks questions and sets out to test them for answers. But our culture seems to regard science in an animate form, like a guru seated atop a mountain.

We put science on a pedestal and submit to it as the final authority on all of our problems and important questions. We rely on science to give us the answers.

We even permit science to be the driving force behind public policy, in spite of the fact that science is a search for questions that remain unanswered.

Take the issues of climate change and global warming.

The Nevada Department of Transportation announced Monday it will do $1.6 million worth of work on four bridges along Highway 395 south of Carson City in Douglas County.

Four earthquakes shook the Carson City region Wednesday morning, the largest quake with a magnitude 3.0, at 7:22 a.m. according to the Nevada Seismological Lab.

A 2.4 magnitude earthquake was registered at 7:23 a.m. followed by a 2.0, also at 7:23 a.m. and a 1.2 at 7:44 a.m. The earthquakes were centered around 9 miles southeast of Carson City.
Go here to track this series of earthquakes and others around the region.

About 100 years ago Nevada was rocked by the largest earthquake in its history, the 1915 magnitude 7.3 Pleasant Valley earthquake south of Winnemucca. Only a few large earthquakes since then have rumbled the state, but nothing near the surface scar — with a vertical offset as high as 19 feet – that stretched 35 miles across Nevada’s Great Basin.

Carson City Emergency Management and the Carson City Fire Department will host a planning and community hazard mitigation open house and workshop Thursday, marking the 100th anniversary of the historic 1915 Nevada Pleasant Valley earthquake that happened 50 miles south of Winnemucca and considered the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Nevada.

Motorists along I-580 can expect lane closures through Washoe Valley for the rest of September and on weekends into October as the Nevada Department of Transportation begins work this week to repave the aging roadway surface and seismically retrofit bridges.