RENO, Nev. (AP) — Scientists say the Sierra's eastern front is long overdue for a large earthquake along the California-Nevada line, where a magnitude-7 event expected on average every 30 years hasn't occurred in six decades.
Nevada Seismology Laboratory Director Graham Kent plans to discuss what he calls the earthquake "drought" at a forum Tuesday ahead of the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting beginning Wednesday in Reno.
Kent says a magnitude-6 earthquake or larger typically strikes every decade along the Sierra Nevada frontal fault system running from south of Yosemite National Park to north of Reno and Lake Tahoe.
He says there were seven magnitude-6.5 or larger in the region from 1915 to 1954, but none since. The last magnitude-6 was 22 years ago in the Carson Valley south of Carson City.