Nevada has experienced a surge in seismic activity over the past five hours.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded seven earthquakes, the strongest a 3.6-magnitude tremor that struck at 5:44am ET.
The epicenter was Valmy, a small town located along several active fault lines, including the Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley Fault Scarps, the Central Nevada Seismic Belt and the Pleasant Valley Fault, which is capable of producing a quake up to magnitude 7.7.
The swarm was likely driven by tectonic forces along the fault systems of the Basin and Range Province.
NASA explained: ‘The Earth’s crust in the Basin and Range Province is gradually expanding, cracking into hundreds of faults as it thins.
‘Over millions of years, land on one side of the faults rose, forming mountains, while land on the other sank into basins.
‘This ongoing activity makes the Basin and Range one of the most seismically active regions in the U.S.’
The earthquakes were shallow, averaging about five miles below the surface. Shallow quakes pose a greater risk of strong shaking than deeper tremors, as the energy from the earthquake reaches the surface more directly.
A 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Nevada in 2020 (pictured), which was likely caused by the Basin and Ridge Province cracking and stretching
An assessment from Michigan Tech University showed that people typically do not feel quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or less.
Those from 2.5 to 5.4 are often felt but only cause minor damage.
However, the region is sparsely populated, and no reports of shaking have been submitted to the USGS.
Valmy is also home to the Twin Creeks Mine and Turquoise Ridge Mine, major gold-producing sites.
Mining operations involve extensive excavation and blasting, which can alter the stress distribution in the surrounding rock.
Removing large volumes of material changes the weight and pressure on the Earth’s crust, while blasting can produce small tremors that occasionally trigger movement along nearby faults.
In some cases, fluid injection or drainage used in mining can increase pressure underground, slightly lubricating faults and making them more likely to slip.
While these activities can influence local seismic activity, they are unlikely to be the primary cause of larger earthquakes.
Geologists have pointed to the Basin and Range as the culprit for such earthquake swarms.
The Basin and Range Province near Valmy, Nevada, is a geologically active region characterized by alternating north-south mountain ranges and valleys formed through extensive crustal stretching over the past 23 million years.
The crust in this area is relatively thin, averaging about 19 to 22 miles thick, and has undergone lateral extension of roughly 37 to 186 miles since the Early Miocene.
This extension has created hundreds of normal faults, causing blocks of the crust to either rise into mountains or sink into basins.
The Basin and Range also covers a vast area from southern Idaho and Oregon in the north, through Nevada, eastern California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.
A 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Idaho and a 5.7-magnitude quake in Utah, both in March 2020, were linked to fault activity in the Basin and Range Province.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .