Exceptionally strong shallow earthquake along the border of Nevada and California
Last update: February 13, 2013 at 9:12 am by By Ashish Khanal
Update 09:12 UTC : Earthquakes and (expected) shaking intensities are not an exact science as you can see by comparing both images below. The population exposure is the theoretical map of the intensities as expected by USGS. Mammoth Lakes and Bishop are just falling in the MMI II radius (very weak shaking), which should have been hardly felt in these towns. But … people have felt this earthquake in a far wider radius (map just below this paragraph). Such maps are mainly an indication on what to expect in general. Do not blame USGS to be erroneous, because seismology (including intensities) is a very complicated matter. Earthquake waves are propagated through many layers in the earth and each layer can have a different propagation structure. We can assure you, USGS does great work in getting as close as possible to the reality and their work and accuracy are improving year after year.
Update 08:47 UTC : Since the mainshock we have counted 8 M3+ aftershocks. Aftershocks are normal and some faulting areas are very sensitive to aftershocks like this one.
– 28000 people will have experienced this as a weak earthquake. These are theoretical intensity values. As one can see below in our I Have Felt It reports, this earthquake was perceived by people at a far greater distance than the USGS did expect.
Exceptionally strong earthquake in a luckily sparsely populated area.
The maximum shaking intensity as calculated by the USGS was a weak to very weak shaking (MMI II or III).
The area has however a number of cattle barns in a radius of 10 to 20 miles from the epicenter and it cannot be excluded that these may have been damaged.
The epicenter area has NO volcanic past but influencing the seismic pattern of the nearby Mammoth Mountain volcanic field cannot be excluded.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 5.1
Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-02-12 16:10:13
GMT/UTC Time : 2013-02-13 00:10:13
Depth (Hypocenter) : 12.4 km
from: http://earthquake-report.com/2013/02/13/moderate-earthquake-nevada-on-february-13-2013/