At 10:54 PM on October 2, 1915 Pleasant Valley, Nevada, was rocked by an enormous earthquake. Its Mercalli intensity (a guide based on damage from shaking, graded in Roman numerals from I to X) was extreme (X). The Richter scale had not yet been devised, but the quake is estimated to have a magnitude of 7.3. It is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Nevada and lies in the Central Nevada Seismic Belt.
Remarkably, there were no fatalities, as only about 60 people lived in the immediate vicinity of the epicenter. Damage to structures such as barns and houses ranged from extensive to catastrophic, however. Winnemucca, Nevada, about 40 miles north and the nearest town of any size, had widespread but relatively minor damage such as toppled chimneys. An extended series of both foreshocks and aftershocks bracketing the main shock added to the toll of damage--not to mention the stress level of the local population.
The quake left a prominent series of scarps (breaks) in the land surface, of which the most spectacular are along the western base of the Tobin Range, beginning about 40 miles south of Winnemucca and extending another 20 miles so so. The old USGS publications call these the "Pearce" scarps after a former ranch in the area.
At 10:54 PM on October 2, 1915 Pleasant Valley, Nevada, was rocked by an enormous earthquake. Its Mercalli intensity (a guide based on damage from shaking, graded in Roman numerals from I to X) was extreme (X). The Richter scale had not yet been devised, but the quake is estimated to have a magnitude of 7.3. It is the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Nevada and lies in the Central Nevada S…
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