Earthquake Swarm Rocking Truckee Residents
TRUCKEE (CBS SF) -- An earthquake swarm with the largest temblor measuring a 3.9 magnitude rocked Truckee and the Lake Tahoe area Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
According to the USGS, the 3.9 quake hit at about 2:09 a.m. Over the next five hours, more than 16 quakes rattled through the region ranging from 3.2 to 1.7 in magnitudes.
Cheryle Brooks lives in the Tahoe area and took to social media to say: "Felt 2 in Loyalton!!! Woke me up"
There have been no reports of damage or injuries.
University of Nevada Seismological Lab said the quake swarm is occurring on an unnamed fault running between Bridgeport, Calif. and Hawthorne, Nev.
Earlier this month, University of California, Berkeley scientists issued a report claiming that the wet winter and snow melt could triggers small earthquakes.
Cal researchers looked at nine years of our winters and summers and found that the weight of the rain and snow puts pressure on the Sierra and Coastal mountains. As its runs off and dries out, the Earth's crust bounces back, tickling the fault lines and triggering quakes.
Chris Johnson is with the Berkeley Seismological Lab and one of the authors of the study published in the Journal Science.
Johnson said they used GPS to measure the mountains going up and down.
"What we see is this change in the smaller earthquakes that we're using in this study. There's a response to the faults from these really small, subtle motions," Johnson told KCBS.
Seismic activity is as much as 10 percent higher when water weight shifts.
Scientists said they tend to see most of activity in the late spring/early summer in the Sierra, summer and early fall closer to the Coast and the San Andreas when the streams dry out.
