Updated: May 8 2008
Update 2: May 16 2008
Around early March the northwestern Reno neighborhoods of Mogul and Somersett began getting a lot of seismic activity, sometimes dozens of small M1-M2 quakes in a single day. There have also been a number of M3s and a few M4s, including a late-night M4.7 that shook up a lot of people. Because most of these quakes have been very shallow they are very noticeable, even M1 and M2 “micro-quakes” that usually escape notice. And the M4s are way more violent and frightening than any M4 quake should be.
At the moment the rate of the quakes seems to have dropped off quite a bit and are no longer a kind of all-day background shimmer, but the sudden and often booming shakes continue. Just last night (about 4am) for instance a sudden loud M2.6 sounded like the ceiling cracking open.
The USGS web site has a lot of interesting data feeds so I thought I’d generate a bit of chart porn for the 2008 Reno Quake Swarm.